DNA LINKS ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WITH BIBLE STORY OF NOAH’S DESCENDANTS

By Author Unknown

How well do you remember your Bible stories? You might know the many stories of Noah, but a recent discovery by researchers has added a modern twist to the story of Noah’s descendants.

Germany’s University of Tuebingen as well as the Max Planck Institute formed a joint research team to extensively study ancient Egyptian mummies. The researchers have determined  that DNA from mummies in Abusir el Meleq, Egypt matches the DNA of people from Anatolia in the Near East (during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods), as well as people in the Eastern  Mediterranean. In other words, the DNA of ancient Egyptian mummies does not match the DNA of modern Egyptian people.

The researchers studied 151 mummies dating from 1388 BCE to 426 CE, obtaining DNA samples from 90 of the mummies. The researchers sampled mitochondrial DNA. The other type of DNA, called nuclear DNA, is typically sampled, but in very old specimens, nuclear DNA is no longer present in the cell. Conversely, mitochondrial DNA comes from another part of the cell outside the nucleus, and is usually present in very old specimens .

So what does this mean? It likely means that the findings match the Bible’s account in the book of Genesis regarding Noah’s descendants.

In an interview with The Christian Post, the research team said, “We found the ancient Egyptian samples falling distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples. In contrast, modern Egyptians are shifted towards sub­ Saharan African populations.”

Up until now, the common school of thought was that ancient Egyptians came from northern Africa.

Some historians said the Nubians gave rise to the Egyptians, saying that their tomb paintings were so similar that there had to be a link there. In the 1800s, Professor of Egyptology at the University of London, Flinders Petrie lectured on the Nubian queen Aohmes Nefertari, whom he described as the “divine ancestress of the XVlllth dynasty” of pharaohs.

Other scholars of the “Afrocentric” theory claimed that Tutankhamen and his parents and grandparents were black, and  have protested  the depiction  of  the young pharaoh’s facial features. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh ruler in Greece’s dynasty in Egypt. Her race has long been a source of frequent debate .

Some say she was black, while others say that it only makes sense that she was Greek and Persian,  based on the fact that she descended from the Greek Macedonian family of Ptole my. Yet it has been speculated that Cleopatra ‘s mother and her half-sister Arsinoe IV were black.

Furthermore, the Great Sphinx of Giza has been described as having a Negroid face. Ancient Egyptians also referred to their homeland as kmt (modern Kemet) which mainstream scholars translate  as  “the  black place” or “the  black land”. The alternate opinion is that it refers to the fertile black soil of the Nile river delta.

In more recent years, what has come to be known in sciehtific circles as the “black hypothesis ” of Egypt has been the subject of profound controversy and disagreement. Many scientists stated that the ancient Egyptians were a people indigenous to the Nile Valley. As early as the 1800s, some historians said that the opinion that the Africans gave rise to ancient Egypt is “an error long accepted as the truth.”

Nearly 100 years later, the mummy of Ramses II was amazingly preserved and was taken to France in 1975 for further preservation. Scientists divulged that the mummy had fair skin and wavy red hair.

Genesis 10:5-6 states “From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own  language. The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.” Ham was the son of Noah, and Ham’s sons spread out and settled these various regions.

Genesis states that Ham’s sons Mizraim and Cush settled in Egypt and Africa, respectively, which means that the Bible says that two distinct, separate nations were  formed.

Therefore, the Bible states that early peoples of Egypt actually came from the Near East (Mesopotamia region) and that Ham was their ancestor. The Bible also says these same early Egyptian people were the first Egyptian dynasty – the  first pharaohs.

The results confirm what the Bible has said all along. The lead researcher on the study, Johannes Krause, said that the ancient Egyptian mummies they studied indeed looked much more like Near  Eastern ancient  peoples and had nearly zero sub-Saharan African ancestral linkage. In fact, the DNA analysis suggested that the mummies were more closely related to Europeans  than to modern Egyptian people.

Regarding the theory that Africans founded ancient Egypt, the study results suggest that Africans didn’t enter the Egyptian gene pool until the Roman period. Very interesting indeed!

End

 

“Continue in prayer.”  Colossians 4:2

 It is interesting to remark how large a portion of Sacred Writ is occupied with the subject of prayer, either in furnishing examples, enforcing precepts, or pronouncing promises. We scarcely open the Bible before we read, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;” and just as we are about to close the volume, the “Amen” of an earnest supplication meets our ear. Instances are plentiful. Here we find a wrestling Jacob – there a Daniel who  prayed  three times a day – and a David who with all his heart called upon his God. On the mountain we see  Elias; in the  dungeon Paul and  Silas.  We have multitudes of commands,  and myriads of promises.

What does this teach us, but the sacred importance and necessity of prayer? We may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives. If He has said much about prayer, it is because He knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities, that until we  are  in heaven we must not cease to pray.  Dost thou want nothing? Then, I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. Hast thou no mercy to ask of God? Then, may the Lord’s mercy show thee thy misery! A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword,  the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian.  If thou be a child of God, thou wilt seek thy Father’s face , and live in thy Father’s love. Pray that this year thou mayst be holy, humble, zealous, and patient; have closer communion with Christ, and enter oftener into the banqueting-house of His love. Pray that thou mayst be an example and a blessing unto others, and  that thou mayst live more to the  glory of  thy Master.

The motto for this year must be, “Continue in prayer.”

Charles H. Spurgeon