Are Today’s Jews Really Ancient Israel?
Are Today’s Jews Really Ancient Israel?
By Jack Kinsella
Many times have I heard people say something like The Jews today don’t have a drop of Abrahamic blood. Or that, The Jews have no racial or historical connection to the Bible and Palestine. Some Christians explain who the Jews are, saying, The Jews (or Israel) are people who missed (or rejected) the coming of the Messiah and thus were cast aside by God, and so now God deals with the Gentiles.
Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa told an Arab TV audience, “all the events surrounding Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occurred in Yemen, and no Hebrew remnants were found in Israel, for a very simple reason–because they were never here.”
Al-Kidwa said: “Most of the Khazars [a Turkish tribe that converted to Judaism in medieval times] are the Ashkenazic Jews who arrived in Palestine. As Allah is my witness, in my blood flows more of the Children of Israel and the ancient Hebrews than in the blood of Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.”
According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, al-Kidwa also said: “The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the Land of Israel–they occurred in the Arabian Peninsula, primarily in Yemen. The identity of our father Ibrahim [Abraham] who is mentioned in the Koran is clear. From the Koran’s description of him it arises that he lived in the southern Hejaz [Saudi Arabia], near Mecca.”
Most of those who oppose Israel, and especially those Christians who think spiritual Israel is really the Church, include these and similar arguments to support their view. If true, it would bolster the Arab claim to all of Israel and renew global opposition to a Jewish state under the old Zionism is racism argument.
If today’s Jews aren’t descended from Abraham, but are instead a mixed race of people whose only common connection is religion, then they are not a nation in any identifiable sense. They are instead religious zealots who usurped a Biblical promise in order to steal land from the Arabs based on a fraudulent claim.
The Bible promised the land to the seed of Abraham the literal seed of Abraham, not the spiritual seed of Abraham. The spiritual seed of Abraham is the Church.
If modern-day Jews are not Abraham’s literal seed, but merely the descendants of Jewish converts and followers of Judaic tradition, then the Israeli claim to the Land of Israel is false.
Abraham’s blessing passed from Isaac to Jacob. And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. (Genesis 28:4)
So clearly, if modern Israel isn’t the physical and literal seed of Abraham, then Israel’s claim to the Land of Promise is a fraud.
And our support of Israel on the grounds they are God’s Chosen is built on a lie.
Assessment
The Bible says that in the last days, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would return to the mountains of Israel, which have always been waste and the nation of Israel would be reborn, in a day — (Isaiah 66:8).
According to Bible prophecy, during the reign of the antichrist, the Temple will be rebuilt and full Temple worship restored. But, in order for Temple worship to resume, Jewish religious law requires it first be ritually cleansed.
The only way that the Temple area can be ritually restored is by the application of the ashes of a red heifer by an undefiled Cohanim priest. A Cohanim must meet strict bloodline requirements, including direct descendancy from Aaron, the brother of Moses.
So we have lots of problems here that must be solved before the Tribulation Period begins.
1. Only ethnic Jews, not merely religious Jews, qualify to inherit the Land of Promise. For this to be the last generation, the Jews of Israel MUST be the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.
2. To ritually cleanse the Temple, only an ethnic descendant of Aaron, brother of Moses, is qualified to perform the ceremony.
3. The Cohanim must not be ritually defiled himself.
The Bible says that the Jewish priesthood, the Cohanim, began 3000 years ago when God anointed Aaron, brother of Moses, to be Israel’s High Priest.
And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him…And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office, Exodus 28:43, 30:30).
The title of cohen is paternally inherited. Most Jewish men surnamed Cohen are also Cohanim, but so are many men with other surnames.
Recently, a genetic study of modern-day Cohanim has provided the first scientific evidence supporting the oral tradition of an ancient priestly lineage.
Karl Skorecki, a physician who studies the genetics of kidney disease at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, and colleagues in London and the United States realized that they could study the lineage of priests by looking at the Y chromosome, which only men carry.
Unlike all other chromosomes in our cells, the Y chromosome, which bears the male sex-determining gene, is passed essentially unchanged from father to son, barring rare mutations.
The researchers extracted DNA from cells scraped from the inner cheeks of 188 unrelated, self-identified Cohanim from Israel, North America, and Britain. They then looked for the presence or absence of a well-studied small stretch of DNA on the Y chromosome called yap, or Y .
If this hereditary tradition has been closely followed, the Y-chromosomes of the Cohanim today should bear some resemblance to one another because of their unbroken link back to a common ancestor, Aaron.
Genetic studies among Cohanim from all over the world say about 50 percent of Cohanim have that unusual set of genetic markers on their Y chromosome.
What is equally striking is that this genetic signature of the Cohanim is extremely rare outside of Jewish populations.
The Y chromosome also keeps track of time. Small mutations occur in the DNA being passed on, and these changes build up with each generation. Like the tick of a clock, the number of these mutations is a measure of time passed.
By looking at the differences between Y-chromosomes in the Cohanim, researchers can estimate roughly how many generations ago members of the priesthood had a common ancestor.
Remarkably, the evidence suggests the Cohanim chromosomes coalesce at a date that corresponds with the generation of Aaron.
This proves to a scientific certainty that the Jews of Israel are the physical descendants of the Promise.
And a group of rabbis is quietly seeking families of the Jewish priestly caste (Cohanim) who are willing to hand over their newborn sons for a special mission: to be raised in conditions of isolation and ritual purity in order to deal with the next red heifer, if and when she is found.
According to the organizers, sons of Cohanim raised in purity, under conditions stipulated by halacha, or Jewish law, are essential for the purification of those ritually defiled by the dead. Cohanim who are themselves ritually defiled, as already noted, cannot prepare the red heifer for burning or prepare her ashes for sprinkling on the ritually defiled among the People of Israel.
And the search for a ritually pure red heifer continues. One was believed to have been born in Israel last year, but was subsequently disqualified after it developed a blemish.
The Cohanim Gene proves that the nation born in a day on May 14, 1948 is the hereditary nation of Israel whose rebirth Scripture says marks the birth of the generation that will see the return of Christ.
The nearness of the Tribulation is exemplified by the fact that there are qualified Cohanim being raised under ritually pure conditions to prepare them for the ritual cleansing of the Third Temple. There is an ongoing, worldwide search for a qualifying red heifer.
The Jews continue to wage war with the Palestinians over the future possession of the city of Jerusalem and ultimately, possession of the Temple Mount.
God’s Word will not return to Him void. He has spoken it, and it will come to pass.
The modern science of genetics disproves the physical element of the replacement theologian’s arguments, and the clear teaching of Scripture disproves the spiritual elements.
God is clearly not finished with the Jews. He has outlined His future plans for their national redemption in the pages of Scripture. The enemies of Israel are blind to the truth.
And the future is almost now.
Originally written in 2003.