Fresco in the Dura-Europos Synagogue of the capture of the Ark by the Philistines.
The Philistines later returned the Ark to Kiriath-Jearim (Public Domain).
Kiriath-Jearim and the End of British Israelism
By Scout
The town of Kiriath-Jearim is mentioned a number of times in the Old Testament and rightly so. It may have been remote from Jerusalem but it seemed to have hosted some of the significant upheavals in the history of ancient Israel. It was originally Hivite town. The Hivites were a branch of the Canaanites and when they inhabited Kiriath-Jearim it was a place of Baal worship. Joshua conquered Kiriath-Jearim and may have changed its name from Kiriath-Baal to Kiriath-Jearim. Later when the Philistines returned the captured Ark to Israel, it first resided in Kiriath-Jearim where it stayed about twenty years. Urijah the son of Shemaiah, a prophet and contemporary of Jeremiah, operated from Kiriath-Jearim. Finally, Jews from Kiriath-Jearim were exiled to Babylon. And now it is the place of the very first excavation of the burial site of an ancient Israelite family where the ancient DNA has been analyzed.
This finding is a significant milestone in the invalidation of British-Israelism by the science of genetics. The study of ancient DNA is called archaeogenetics. This beginning point in the archaeogenetics of Palestine augurs a bleak future of declining credibility for those who make British-Israelism (BI) a part of their theology.
The Excavation in Brief
Tomb raiders hit a location in the village of Abu Ghosh which adjoins Kiriath-Jearim. And Kiriath-Jearim is about 15 kilometers west of Jerusalem. It is on the ancient border between Judah and Benjamin. Typically, archaeologists in Israel would avoid disturbing the remains of the dead but in this case their hand was forced. The tomb was damaged by both construction and looting so the archaeologists did a rapid salvage excavation. The tomb contained at least 10 people along with some ceramic grave goods. This included three adult men and three adult women and four children. It is probable that these people came from the Israelite elite. The contents of the tomb were dated to around 750-650 BCE. This places it in the latter part of the Iron Age or the late First Temple period. (See Reference 2.)
The Haplogroups
This is the first recovery of DNA from ancient Israelites living around the First Temple period. Professor David Reich, a geneticist from Harvard University, worked on the genetic analysis. The recovery technique involved using the petrous bone, an area of the skull just behind the ear. This piece of the skull is rich in DNA. Extraction was done on two individuals, a male and a female, and haplogroups were identified. The Y chromosome haplogroup of the man was J2. Both the male and female had mtDNA and the haplogroups were T1a and H87. (Y chromosome haplogroups are inherited through the masculine line and mtDNA is inherited through the female line.) Haplogroup J is quite common in the Middle East and is carried by Jews, Arabs and others. Spencer Wells, in a National Geographic study, identified the ancient Canaanites as haplogroup J. And several ancient Assyrian burials yielded Y chromosome haplogroup J. (See Note below.) T1a is associated with Neolithic Anatolia and H87 is associated with the Arabian Peninsula. The people of Northwest Europe, on the other hand, are principally haplogroups R1a, R1b and I.
The sample data is small so that we cannot yet draw broad conclusions but more research is on the way. Professor David Reich stated:
This is only partial data with a more detailed paper coming in the future. Sampling DNA from ancient Israelites is exciting, as it should make it possible to test how they relate genetically to previous groups, to contemporary non-Israelite groups, and to people living today. (Reference 3.)
The Implications of the Genetics for British Israelism
None of this is good news for advocates of BI. The research is only at the beginning but the archaeology along with current anthropology of modern races indicate which trajectory this will follow in its implications for BI: the Israelites of the Iron Age are haplogroup J and are not identified with Northwest Europeans. The most effective counter-argument that proponents of BI can make at this time is that the sample is too small to really reveal anything. But this argument will continue to erode as more data comes in.
BI would predict that the burials in the area of the Northern Ten Tribes should be dense with the Northwest European Y chromosome haplogroups R1a and R1b. If these haplogroups are not found or found but not dense, then BI collapses for lack of evidence where evidence should be most easily collected.
There is some possibility that Kiriath-Jearim is a northern kingdom city – likely Benjamite. Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein’s excavations at the site revealed that there was a large artificial platform at the top of the settlement. This accords with the urban planning of the northern kingdom. Armstrongism asserts that it is probable that Benjamin is to be identified with the people of Norway. Yet the Norwegians are dominated by Y chromosome haplogroups I and R1a. If the site at Kiriath-Jearim can be shown to be northern kingdom definitively, this presents a small crisis for Armstrongism. But as more data comes in, the small crisis turns into a great thunderstorm. We are now on the cusp of a definitive archaeogenetic case against BI.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why BI is not tenable. Among these, archaeogenetics will provide an extremely tight case. For BI to be true, the burials of Iron Age Palestine and should be densely populated with Y chromosome R1b and R1a in the area of the northern kingdom. These are the haplogroups of Northwest Europeans. And without BI, the prophetic interpretations of Armstrongism collapse. If the Northwest Europeans are shown to be Goyim, then the Northwest Europeans have no significant role in prophecy. The jury is still out on the archaeogenetic case but we have a preview and the case will be soon resolved as more data accumulates.
Note: The fact that the Israelites, Canaanites, and Assyrians are all principally haplogroup J has implications for the interpretation of the so-called Table of Nations in Genesis 10. One can apply genetic principles to the Table of Nations. This is an approach that some reject because they regard the Table of Nations to be a fantasy. But let us assume that it is real. Genetics requires that the three sons of Noah will have the same Y chromosome haplogroup as Noah. It is highly probable that is haplogroup J. Any other conclusion would lack scientific traction and would require a novel, and likely dubious, solution. This means that Ham, Shem, and Japheth were all haplogroup J. Actually, all masculine lines in the Table of Nations are haplogroup J. The Table implies that everyone in the world should be the same haplogroup and, of course, this is not the case. A better fit to reality is that the Flood devastated a collection of villages belonging to a racially homogenous group of people descended from a man named Adam who was haplogroup J. And that the Table reflects Middle Eastern people who are all of the same race. In fact, the genetics of the Israelites (Shemitic) and the Canaanites (Hamitic) are so close, that some geneticists speculate that the Israelites are a sub-group of the Canaanites. While this contradicts the Biblical record, it indicates this closeness between the Israelites and Canaanites. The Biblical record would support the idea that they are “cousins.” Genetics has shown that the modern descendants of Canaan are the Lebanese.
References
1. Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Kiriath-Jearim and the Ark.”
2. David, Ariel. “In First, Archaeologists Extract DNA of Ancient Israelites,” Haaretz online News.
3. Shous, Ari, et al. “Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of an Iron II Burial Cave on the Slope of Tel Kiriath-Yearim.”
