(From: Nature. 2015 Jun 11; 522(7555): 207–211.)
The Latest Findings on the Ancient Migrations into Europe:
Bubonic Plague, Massacres, Captive Women and What this Means for British-Israelism
By Scriptor
The people of Europe are a mixed population. They are an amalgam of three groups of people who invaded Europe at different times. The first occupiers of Europe were Hunter-Gatherers and are identified with Y Chromosome Haplogroup (Hg) I. The second group to invade were Neolithic Farmers from Anatolia identified with Hg G. And the third and final group of invaders were Steppe Pastoralists (Yamnaya people who later became the Corded Ware people), who came out of Eurasia, are identified by Hg R (R1a and R1b). The ancient Hg R people were cattle herders on the Russian Steppes. Hg I survives in south Scandinavia. Hg G survives in Sardinia and other circum-Mediterranean locations. [Otzi, the prehistoric man found in the Swiss Alps and living circa 5000 years ago (YA), is Hg G.] Otherwise, Hg I and Hg G survive in small numbers throughout Europe. The great majority Europeans, from Russia to Britain, are Hg R. (Note: While these three populations are at great variance genetically, actually different races, they were all Caucasian in appearance. The Hunter-Gatherers, closely connected genetically to modern southern Scandinavians, had blue eyes and dark skin as recently as 7,000 YA. Light skin is a relatively recent mutation. This is known from genome sequencing done on excavated skeletons.)
Using genetics and traditional archaeology (excavations and artifacts), a new migration scenario for Europe has been recently developed. I will summarize the scenario here and give references at the end of this article leading to greater detail. At one time Europe was occupied by the Hunter-Gatherers. Later another group of people came out of Anatolia and invaded Europe (5th Millennium BC). These people were agriculturalists and are referred to as Neolithic Farmers. They ceased their invasion when they reached the forested areas of Europe because this type of terrain was not conducive to farming. The Hunter-Gatherers remained in the forested areas of North Europe. The Neolithic Farmers began to mix with the Hunter Gathers after their arable lands reached carrying capacity. The Neolithic Farmers developed large, well-organized cities and were successful in their settlement of the arable land. They developed proto-urban mega sites – cities of more than 10,000 people. Then disaster occurred. An early ancestral form of bubonic plague started in the Ukraine and decimated Europe leaving vast stretches of land with very much reduced populations of Hunter-Gatherers and Neolithic Farmers (4,900 YA).
The depopulation caused by the bubonic plague gave opportunity to the Steppe Pastoralists to take over Europe (4,800 YA). The Bubonic Plague was also among the Pastoralists but they had developed some immunity to it. They sent expeditions of male warriors into Europe. In the conflict with the Neolithic Farmers and the Hunter Gatherers, they wiped out the indigenous male population and took the women into captivity for labor and reproduction. Mass graves and massacre sites have been excavated. This is unfortunately an ugly picture. The Pastoralists also altered the environment. In Denmark for instance, they burnt down forests and converted the land into fields for grazing their herds. When they reached the Atlantic shore of Europe, they acquired maritime technology from the Bell Beaker people, a related Hg R people, of Spain, and invaded the British Isles where events proceeded much as they had on the mainland, with the displacement of indigenous populations. This migration pattern may sound familiar. It is essentially what happened when the Hg R people invaded the New World. But instead of bubonic plague, the diseases transmitted to the indigenous population were smallpox, measles, and other common diseases that Europeans had already adapted to but Native Americans had no resistance to.
The result was that the Europeans are a composite of principally these three peoples. The chart at the top of this essay illustrates the population composition. The part of the chart labeled “Modern” shows the composition of modern European nations. Europeans have Neolithic Farmer and Hunter Gatherer genes principally from the women who were taken captive but the European Y chromosome lineage is primarily from the male Steppe Pastoralists. It is as if a painter had three colors of paint: white, red, and blue. These three colors were mixed to form various shades of purple. There can be some variation in the mixtures but all the colors are basically purples. And the European people are all about the same genetically from Russia to Britain and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. Variation in admixture of the same basic genetic components is what causes local differences in the people of Europe.
What is absent in these findings is any support for BI and other ideas espoused by Herbert W. Armstrong and Herman Hoeh. There is no evidence in the migration findings for an invasion of the British Isles by people from the Middle East. The R1b peoples of Britain have the same composite genome as the rest of Europe. Hoeh believed that Europe was populated by different races of people, some “Israelitish” and some Gentile. For instance, Hoeh believed that the Ukrainians were descended from Japheth and the British were descended from Shem. Shemites and Japhethites were regarded as different racially that there were policies taught in classes at Ambassador College Pasadena in the Seventies that Japhethites and Shemites should not intermarry. Notice on the chart above the British and Ukrainians are nearly identical genetically. The difference between these peoples is cultural/historical/geopolitical not racial.
The fact is that there is nothing about Europe that reflects Hoeh’s interpretation of the “Table of Nations” in Genesis 10. The text “Table of Nations” is a non-Biblical gloss. And God did not say that the Ukrainians were descended from Japheth; Herman Hoeh did. The recently established migration pattern discussed in this essay, when it is paired with the fact that there are no excavation strata in Palestine evidencing a dense population of Hg R people as BI would predict for the habitation area of the Ten Tribes, forms an elegant proof that BI is patently false. And this does not rest on soft arcane and semi-mythological histories and other incunabula but on hard genetic evidence and artifact excavation.
In summary, Europe is not divided up into various nations with greatly differing genetic backgrounds. It is instead a collection of nations with very similar genetic compositions. These peoples differ only in the amounts of the three genetic components in the admixture. The British and other “Israelitish” nations in Western Europe do not stand out genetically in any way from the greater European population. This essential similarity is illustrated in the chart above. And BI as a theory fails to explain the real data.
References
The cited video on YouTube is very interesting and explains this migration data in greater detail but is sufficiently non-technical to be understood by a general audience. It is well worth watching. The article cited is much more academic.
Towards a New European prehistory: genes, archaeology, and language – Kristian Kristiansen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxTVSwt-jsU&t=2738s
Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe. Nature. 2015 Jun 11; 522(7555): 207–211.
Personal Note
A particular study in the article listed in References above includes data from seven Yamnaya burials in Russia from around 5,000 YA. The haplogroup for all these burials is R1b-M269, a very common haplogroup in western Europe. This is also my haplogroup and my male line ancestors came from the British Isles. It is remarkable to realize that my tribe of people, the British people, were on the Steppes of Russia 5,000 YA. That is about 1,000 years earlier than the traditional date for Abraham. Since I have a speck of Jewish ancestry, I am also descended from Abraham. He just seems like a recent relative by comparison. -- Scriptor
31 comments:
I went to a high school with mostly European students, and they were noticably different in nature and temperament to Anglo-Saxons. I was always struck by the temperament of the cops in the TV Cops program. Their temperament and personalities were so similar. Compare that to actor Al Pacino whose parents are Italian.
Your haplogroup is the same as mine Scriptor and my male ancestor line is Italian :-)
It would be very nice indeed if factual materials dispelled inaccurate beliefs. But, more than ever, recent political history illustrates the fact that people often prefer fantasies and conspiracy theories which support their beliefs and philosophies, and could care less about the facts which repudiate and disprove them. And, it's no longer only in the field of religion that this phenomenon occurs.
Armstrongism claimed to be a prophetic organization, with their knowledge of the future based upon theories and leaps to false conclusions. It did prove itself to be a predictive movement in that it illustrated how large groups of people will embrace and become fanatical about falsehoods. In so many ways we former members and members experienced in microcosm how an authoritarian conservative percentage of the population can throw common sense to the wind, and reverse hundreds of years of progress in civilization, becoming self-destructive as they follow a so-called strong man down the rabbit hole. It's been an informative misadventure.
Unfortunately, Armstrongism has also taught us that while some will leave a toxic system, a hard core cadre will persist in adhering to it, and will continue to influence and to do their damage. For many of us, it is an exercise in watching the train wreck which we know is inevitable.
Anonymous 5:40
Very well said.
Scriptor
Anonymous 3:52
Southern Europeans are somewhat different from Northern Europeans in the sense they have a larger proportion of Neolithic Farmer ancestry. The chart at the top is intended to show that. It moves from north to south. It starts in Norway and ends in Sardinia.
Also, in Southern Europe there are small population inclusions of other Mediterranean peoples such as Jews, Arabs and North Africans. Throughout Scandinavia there are inclusions of mongoloid peoples from the Siberian region. This will create subtle inclinations in a population, but it does not rise to the level of watershed racial divergence. Europeans are all essentially the same brew.
Scriptor
The United States as Manasseh?
Impossible.. The leading ethnic origin country for the United States is GERMANY!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Americans
Some 44 Million Americans are foreign born, and most of these are NOT from England. We have Mexicans, Koreans, Jews, Chinese, India, Japanese, Russians, Blacks, Native Americans and much more, and have been intermarrying for the last 400 years as well.
The Royal Family itself has German origins, and changed their name from Hohenzollern to Windsor to downplay that fact! Kaiser Wilhelm was Queen Victoria's grandson!
Time to take this theory that is thoroughly disproven and discard it completely.
Galatians 3:28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Being J2, I'm just over here shaking my head. :)
On the positive side from the world of EX-WCGers:
https://www.vision.org/racism-or-human-race-9384
https://www.vision.org/colonialisms-painful-legacy-9373
I remember a minister saying, "I have German in me, I'm part German." So was he part Assyrian? One can find all kinds of holes in that BI doctrine. And what about the French Revolution, with Napoleon, so it's the beast power but at the same time they are "Ruben"??? Make that make sense.
This guy broke it down as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzXbWcWp3Gg
9:50. That's real slick claiming that David Hulme's cultic nonsense is valid because he is ex-WCG.
Armstrongism is a totalitarianism abusive cult. But that does not mean that all its doctrines are false. I believe that the tribulation is near, and that America will be one of its victims because the holy spirit has affirmed this to me more than once. Yeah, yeah, that's no proof to others, but a suggestion to inquire with God on the matter.
I have to admit it is interesting reading.
3:52
I don’t know. I guess it depends on your own experience including time and place since my childhood in the 1980s and early 1990s attending Australian schools that were predominantly European (95%) and a minority Asian (5%) in composition I found the nature and temperaments of myself and all my European friends similar (eg Anglo-Saxon; Romanian Jew; Italian; Greek; Turkish; etc). Even the several Asian friends I had (eg Chinese; Vietnamese; Indian; etc) were similar in nature and temperament to my European friends. So maybe it’s a generalization to say that Europeans are different to Anglo-Saxons in nature and temperament or this ethnicity is different to that ethnicity since I’ve found in my experience it really comes down to the individual and their personality; interests; morality; etc that matters when it comes to compatibility and not so much the country they’re from.
I have not seen anything from the Armstrongist side of the house in response to my article. But I doubt that BI is a dead issue among those denominations. BI after all is their key to prophecy and they are pre-occupied with prophecy. BI also gives “Biblical” impetus to believing that White Privilege, with all of its current political implications, is the natural order in civilization. I do think that more and better data will emerge in the future on the anthropological history of Europe and the Mideast that will make a reality-based defense of BI impossible. As I see it, there are at least two ways in which BI will be likely defended in the Armstrongist realm:
First, a part of the BI story is that God hid the identity of Israel. But the identity was revealed to HWA in the last days. Based on this, I would expect that some Armstrongists will contend that God changed the genetics of “Israel” so that "Israel" would appear to be “Gentile” and would be hidden to the world. Hence, genetic findings are inapplicable to the "Israelites." After all some Young Earth Creationists believe that God planted fossils in the geological record.
The second possibility for a renaissance in BI is to assert that some nations may have “Gentile” genetics but “Israelite” spirits. There was no change to genetics as in the previous scenario but a change in spirit. My guess is that someone will rise up and claim the gift of “discerning the spirits” and validate that certain nations are “Israel.” This borders on being occult and if anyone claims to be able to discern spirits, I personally would stay away from them. The spirit discerner, at best, is someone with an outsized appreciation for their own opinion.
I believe that science, by just expanding knowledge, has sounded the death knell for BI. But it will be interesting to see the Armstrongist response to this. I think we are at the point now where if the Armstrongist pulpit asserts BI that this erodes the pulpit’s credibility with a significant number of people in the audience. The pulpit could completely abandon BI. But BI is such a critical part of Armstrongism, I cannot imagine what a post-BI Armstrongism might look like.
Scriptor
For a comparison, check out how members of white supremacist groups reacted online when DNA testing became available at the consumer level. It was quite funny to watch them try to explain away their newfound Jewish or African blood.
"The Jews own the dna companies and they make it say that stuff to foster multiculturalism!!!" was by far my favorite.
Not only is BI a critical part of Armstrongism, being right about everything is a critical part of Armstrongism.
Mr Armstrong's brand was "the plain truth about...". At least in my local UCG leadership, the dogma is that we have all truth because we're the true church; we're the true church because we have been given all truth.
However, that institutional claim of truth-holding is also its undoing, because once someone becomes skeptical about any one doctrine of Armstrongism, its credibility grounded on 100% truth-holding catastrophically collapses. Armstrongism would have been more enduring if it had made more humble claims about knowing the truth; if it had acknowledged that we must "grow in grace and knowledge". But UCG et al have taken the stance that we have the truth once delivered, and now it's locked in, and our job is to defend it to the end of the age. Saying any doctrine might be wrong would be tantamount to renouncing our own legitimacy.
Upholding our own doctrinal correctness thus seems necessary to avoid haemorrhaging membership who have been faithful to the church for decades. But at the same time, it's a barrier to gaining new membership while people inspect the body of doctrine and conclude that significant portions are flawed—who aren't already so committed to the church's truth claims.
I've become a skeptic about BI doctrine because I can't see sound evidence to support it. I've asked local leadership about it, but haven't heard back. I think they would just want me to (a) read the church booklets and find those convincing; (b) accept that the church holds true doctrine because it's the true church; and (c) acknowledge if I question it then I'm prideful and self-deceived.
I have been doing a Bible study/survey about BI. One thing that struck me about it was, the BI doctrine leads the Armstrongite churches to downplay one of the greatest developments of New Testament scripture, which is the doctrine about salvation of Gentiles.
It's not that they deny it as such; it's just that they're totally disinterested in talking about it or exploring its implications—even though it was such a significant part of New Testament scripture, both in history in Acts, and in the doctrines elaborated in Paul's epistles.
But perhaps most importantly, the doctrine of the salvation of Gentiles has the implication that a BI doctrine, about the hidden modern-day identity of Israel, should not be such an important doctrine in the context of salvation being made available to all people due to the nature of Jesus Christ's sacrifice. The apostles were commanded to spread the gospel of salvation to the whole world. BI doctrine is a distraction from that mandate.
Anonymous 1:35
Something that I would add to what you have already written so well is that BI is a calumny, inadvertent I believe, against God. The way that the theory is formulated and is received by its followers, it makes God a "respecter of persons." Whereas the Christian position is expressed by Peter:
"So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."
BI militates against Peter's declaration about the true nature of God. When people with low self-esteem, who are favored by BI, encounter a theory like BI, the theory will be interpreted and applied in an invidious way by some. I saw that happen in the WCG last century. Ask yourself how much print space was given to the verse above in contrast to the amount of print space adulating "Israel." For instance, the Compendium of World History was written to demonstrate that the "Israelite" people (Britain and other western European people) were the wellspring of civilization. Peter would be appalled at how these views have been sourced to God.
Scriptor
Exactly, and that's why Peter had to have that vision shown to him that he was not to call any man common or unclean (Acts 10:28) & to be corrected by Paul at some point. To be truthful they really don’t want the Apostle Paul’s writings, because the context of most of his writings excluding his letter to the Hebrews are concerning the Gentiles. And God chose him to write more than any other NT writer.
But even when you read Peter, his stuff aligns more with Paul’s writings rather than Armstrongism. Take for instance this passage in 1 Peter 2. Now the COGs give lip service to being a holy priesthood or a holy nation or special people. They know that was applied in the Old Testament in Exodus 19:6 regarding Israel. But Peter applies it to the New Testament Church.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
BUT THEY WON’T READ THE NEXT VERSE!
10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
This is Peter who is the apostle to the circumcision who says they were once not a people, but now are. He was addressing people living as sojourners or pilgrims (1 Peter 1:1,& 1 Peter 2:11).
Here it is that Armstrong passed (RIP) nearly 40 years ago, and the COGs still can’t move on and improve upon some of the doctrines or ideas that aren’t really significant to God at this point. It’s like they don’t want to grow in grace and in knowledge in this area. They have actually went backwards in this area and it effects how you view people and fellowship with "other" people who God may be calling.
You know, Gary, I think that might be a fine question for discussion. What would Armstrongism look like if BI was excluded?
RSK
I believe that if all the Armstrongist denominations jointly issued a renunciation of BI tomorrow, they would move much close to the other non-Armstrongist denominations on the Millerite spectrum. I do not believe they would merge with any of them because they are much more strict in keeping the Sabbath. My guess is that they would be more like the Branch Davidians than the Church of God Seventh Day or the Seventh Day Adventists. Branch Davidians with suits, ties, wing-tips and sunset to sunset.
But along with this shift in theology, they would undergo a depopulation of their pews for two reasons:
1. They would no longer have the engine of fear based on the idea of the Tribulation targeting the USA and Britain. This would severely limit their fund raising from both internal (tithing) and external sources. It would also likely terminate their membership expansion.
2. They would lose those members that are warming a seat in the pews almost entirely because they want to believe that God supports their White Nationalist/Privilege beliefs. These people would no longer have a reason to be Armstrongists.
There are other points. But this will remain hypothetical. Armstrongists will never abandon BI because of the two points above. Those two points are enough to keep them herded in the BI direction. In an earlier comment I gave my opinion about how they would justify the retention of BI.
My two cents ...
Scriptor
Ever hear the expression "Here's the new boss. Same as the old boss"?
There is another school of thought, actually more widely believed than British Israelism. It could almost be considered as a corollary. It runs along the lines that the USA was founded as a Christian nation, and was exceptionally blessed because of this. However, over the past decades, Anericans have turned their backs on the very values which were once part of our national culture, and if we do not repent, the tribulation awaits us. This alternative explanation gets you to some of the same places as Armstrongism, but without all of the scientific impossibilities and conspiracy theories which Armstrongism uses to "prove" the apocalyptic aspects of their belief system. Taking the spiritual principle that Christians are Abraham's seed through Jesus Christ is much more easily and logically defended than attempting to prove that a melting pot of humanity is genetcally descended from the lost offspring of a patriarch, and have lost their sense of identity, and their God, and will be punished having no idea why.
The big problem for Armstrongites is that their founder and leader has proclaimed that mainstream Christians are "Christians falsely so-called." So, he considers the founders of the country not to have actually been Christian at all, and reverts to an impossible theory of genetics as his explanation instead. There are very logically and Biblically sound alternatives to all of HWA's doctrines. Sadly, we never really discussed these in depth, or other than in a mocking way. That was the WCG way. Sad, in retrospect.
Well, if BI suddenly met a magic bullet tomorrow, yes, the WN/WS leanings of so-inclined members might be shaken.
But jt would also mean that all the "time of Jacobs trouble" applications they used to twist various OT passages into warnings towards the West would no longer be valid. It would rob their apocalypticism of its urgency. It would undercut the supposed duality of "Assyria" deporting "Israel" again.
The original enigma of the BI doctrine is the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh being Asenath (which they are ashamed of mentioning in their "inspired literature"). The COGs point to genetics to prove the BI doctrine. But the two sons had to go through an adoption ceremony because they were mixed and their mother wasn't an Israelite. This is the starting point or premise. And when the premise is off, then their resolution ends up being off.
Correct: Christians are Abraham's seed through Jesus Christ
anonymous 9:35
I agree that there are other scenarios that could power the engine of apocalyptic fear. The one you mention is a likely alternative. The fact that it lacks a doctrine of racial superiority and privilege favoring the Westen Europeans will cause the loss of some Armstrongism followers. But a piece of the cake is better than a whole cake that is gradually becoming a laughingstock.
Scriptor
Anonyhmous 2:02
Armstrongists were very concerned about racial purity when I associated with them. My article will be especially disturbing to them because it demonstrates that the Europeans are a mix of what can only be considered as three different races. Their outward appearance or phenotype is Caucasoid, but their autosomal composition is quite at variance. Although the Hunter Gatherers were dark skinned a few Millennia ago. If they had not mutated away from dark skin, they would now obviously be of a different race and the genetic divergence would have a phenotypical correlate. But after some mutations they are now the light skinned Scandinavians. They all want to believe that Israel is racially pure. They all need to go take a genetic test so they can acquire some humility.
Scriptor
Somewhere I read in Armstrongist literature that Asenath was not an Egyptian but was a Midianite or something like that. The Midianites are an Abrahamic people. Likewise, the Armstrongist press once published an article characterizing Rahab to be a Moabite rather than a Canaanite. They, of course, mistakenly believed Canaanites to be West African Blacks. This means that Jesus would not pass the "one drop" test if Rahab were Black. Armstrongist preachers also used to laud HWA as racially pure, like Noah supposedly was. But now with genetic testing we can establish that he carries Neanderthal genes like other Western Europeans. Some even saw that HWA's great mission in the next life would be to segregate the nations. I think maybe it was Waterhouse who espoused that view.
Anon202,
Segregating the races into different nations in the Millennium was taught in Armstrong's Mystery of the Ages with Noah leading the segregating effort.
Thing is, mothers dont contribute to Y-DNA - which is usually what is being measured.
I dont remember exactly what you're referring to, Scriptor, but I would guess the claim was that Asenath and her family were Hyskos.
RSK:
I looked around but could not find a reference to Asenath being a Midianite. Faulty memory I would bet.
Scriptor
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