Deu 13:14 14 you are to inquire, investigate, and interrogate thoroughly. If the report turns out to be true that this detestable thing has happened among you.
Four Jewish mothers who lived 1000 years ago in Europe are the ancestors of 40% of all Ashkenazi Jews alive today, international researchers report.
The DNA study paints a vivid picture of human evolution and survival, and correlates with the well-established written and oral histories of Jewish migrations, says Dr Doron Behar of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who worked on the study.
The study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that some 3.5 million Jews alive today descended from four women.
For their study, Behar and scientists from Europe and the US sampled DNA from 11,452 people from 67 populations.
"All subjects reported the birthplace of their mothers, grandmothers, and, in most cases, great-grandmothers," the scientists write.
They looked at mitochondrial DNA, which is found in cells, outside the nucleus and away from the DNA that carries most genetic instructions.
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down virtually unchanged from mother to daughter, but it does occasionally mutate, at a known rate.
Researchers can use this molecular clock to track genetic changes through time.
They used it, for instance, to compute when the "ancestral Eve" of all living humans lived: in Africa, about 180,000 years ago.
Now they have found four ancestral Jewish mothers.
"I think there was some kind of genetic pool that was in the Near East," Behar says.
"Among this genetic pool there were four maternal lineages, four real women, that carried the exact specific mitochondrial DNA markers that we can find in mitochondrial DNA today."
Settling Europe
They, or their direct descendants, moved into Europe.
"Then at a certain period, most probably in the 13th century, simply by demographic matters, they started to expand dramatically," Behar says.
"Maybe it was because of Jewish tradition, the structure of the family that might have been characterised by a high number of children."
But these four families gave rise to much of the population of European Jews, which exploded from 30,000 people in the 13th century to "something like 9 million just prior to World War II", Behar says.
The Nazis and their allies killed 6 million Jews during the war, but there are now an estimated 8 million Ashkenazi Jews, defined by their common northern and central European ancestry, cultural traditions and Yiddish language.
Behar says as they sampled people from Ashkenazi communities around the world, the same mitochondrial genetic markers kept popping up.
They did not find the markers in most of the non-Jewish people they sampled, and only a very few were shared with Jews of other origin.
Ancestry not genetic disease
This particular study does not provide a direct explanation for some of the inherited diseases that disproportionately affect Jews of European descent, such as breast and colon cancer, because most diseases are caused by mutations in nuclear DNA, not the DNA studied by Behar's group.
These genes are believed to date from a 'bottleneck' phenomenon, when populations were squeezed down from large to small and then expanded again.
Behar and Skorecki's team have found what is known as a 'founder effect', when one or a small number of people have a huge number of descendants.
Final Battle: Mormon Promises They Wish They Could Keep
Final Battle: Mormon Promises They Wish They Could Keep Religion Exposed v. Jesus
Hosea 8: 1 "Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law...
Be Strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim 2:1
Final Battle: Mormon Promises They Wish They Could Keep Religion Exposed v. Jesus Final Battle blog: http://finalbattlemormnpromisesthywishthykep.blogspot.com/
Jerry Stokes LDS Testimony https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZOGQzYmU1MzYtMDczNy00ZWU5LWIxOTAtNDZmMTcxOTI0ODhh&hl=en
Fall Book Mormon pdf http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZYjk3Yzg0ZWUtNDU2ZC00YmI1LThmMDctNTczYTkyZTQwMWNj&hl=en
Ten Differing Versions of Joseph Smith’s Sacred Vision http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZYTdjMzkwNTYtZDcwMy00NzdlLTgwYjYtNWMxMDYwNGZiMWZj&hl=en
Fall of the Papyri Behind the Sacred Mormon Temple Endowment https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZOTRjYWRkYzAtOGI0NS00ZmQyLThjNWYtNDM5MTI5ZmY2YWE5&hl=en
DNA & Failed Promises of the Book of Mormon http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZNDVhODZmNWItZGNiNy00NDQ0LTlhNDUtMDNmOTA4Zjc2OTlk&hl=en
Fabrico Santos DNA First Americans 1999 http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B4GvVeQ4Oo_ZZmRhN2UzM2YtNDNkMi00YzlhLTk5ZWQtYjIyMTBmYjc4NWQ5&hl=en
Jerry Stokes Testimony Fifth Generation Mormon: I believe Christians and Mormons will find my testimony interesting for several reasons. The first is because I was a multi-generational Mormon. I was not a Christian who experimented with Mormonism for a few years and then went back to Christianity. My mothers Bradford family was involved with Mormonism from its very earliest days helping to settle Spanish Fork Utah. My father’s Stokes family converted to Mormonism from Great Britain in 1849, crossed the Atlantic, and helped settle Draper Utah as an original pioneer family. Today, I am finding it is this group who are the toughest to reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Another reason I believe my testimony will be interesting is because I was very active for many years. I was ordained by Gordon B. Hinckley who is currently president of the Mormon Church. Like millions of loyal Mormons today, before I came to the Lord, I was too loyal to even pick up materials that the church would consider "anti-Mormon." Because of this I didn't leave the LDS Church because I discovered widespread deceptions or became angry, bitter, or disappointed about my experience with the Church. Actually, I had a good experience as an active member of the Mormon church. I was very proud of my heritage. It was only after I came to Christ that I discovered the depth of those problems.
Another reason I believe my testimony will be interesting is because my activity included my helping to train missionaries in Anaheim California. I spent a years "knocking on doors" for the Mormon Church. This experience put me in contact with a diverse community that included many professing Christians. As I shared the Mormon gospel with Christians, I experienced dozens of ways Christians responded and witnessed to me. Today after many years I can still recall some techniques that were very effective. I also like to share about some ways of sharing the gospel that are not as helpful.
My years of temple activity are another reason I believe my testimony is interesting. To work with Mormons it is helpful to understand key Mormon "idioms" rooted in their temple experience. Active Mormons are asked to attend temple services at least once a month. This means many Mormons have been through the temple hundreds of times. The temple experience deeply shapes a Mormon’s theology. Although the 1990 temple endowment has changed, the information Mormons receive there is important if someone wants to impact a temple Mormon. Much of the dialogue of the temple experience is rooted in what Joseph Smith included in his Book of Abraham.
My testimony will cover some historical highlights from my family's history as it relates to the early Mormon experience. If you know active Mormons, you already know how very proud they are of their heritage. For many of those active Mormons, no one has ever formally announced for them the reality of the fall of Joseph Smith's "First Vision," the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, or the Book of Abraham. These events were very important because beginning in the 1960's the reality of these "falls" began to influence the way the Church responded to the world as well as its own membership.
Many of the millions of active Mormons today are quietly aware of some problems, but their information comes in controlled carefully planned releases. Many Mormons today are "in denial" about the reality of what the force of those "falls" mean. Reaching a people "in denial" can be challenging. I have a deep love for these Mormons who have not yet come to terms with the reality that they are attached to an "empty shell" that Mormonism tragically is. If you are being drawn into a ministry to Mormons I want to encourage you in the Lord, while it is a difficult mission field they are a people worthy of your efforts.
Hosea 8: 1 "Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law...
Be Strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim 2:1
