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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church/Chapter 9
Response to claims made in "Chapter 9: The Outcasts of Israel"
| Chapter 6 | A FAIR Analysis of: Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church A work by author: Simon G. Southerton
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Chapter 10 |
- Response to claim: 120 - We should expect the common culture, history and ancestry to be revealed in the genes of the lost 10 tribes and those of the kingdom of Judah if they are actually related
- Response to claim: 128-129 - The Lemba can be genetically tied to the line of Aaron
- Response to claim: 129 - In Mesoamerica, there is no genetic support for European lineages
The author(s) of Losing a Lost Tribe make(s) the following claim:
We should expect the common culture, history and ancestry to be revealed in the genes of the lost 10 tribes and those of the kingdom of Judah if they are actually related.
Author's sources: *No source given.
FAIR's Response
Response to claim: 128-129 - The Lemba can be genetically tied to the line of Aaron
The author(s) of Losing a Lost Tribe make(s) the following claim:
The Lemba can be genetically tied to the line of Aaron.
Author's sources: *Webber Ndoro, "Great Zimbabwe," Scientific American, Nov. 1997, 62-67.
- Tudor Parfitt, Journey to the Vanished City: The Search for a Lost Tribe of Israel, 1997.
- Thomas, et al., "Y Chromosomes Traveling South: The Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba 'Black Jews of Southern Africa'," American Journal of Human Genetics 66:674-86 (2000).
- Ezra 2꞉35
FAIR's Response
Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources
This is irrelevant for a Book of Mormon context. Only 2% of modern Jews can be identified by genetic testing.
Question: Can the Lemba and Cohen modal haplotype associated with Levite lineage be used to either prove or disprove the Book of Mormon?
The Book of Mormon suggest that there were no Levites among the Lehi party
Thomas Murphy uses the "Lemba" as an example of a group proven to be Jewish via DNA testing. But, this example is misleading. The Lemba were identified as Jewish because of a marker called the "Cohen modal haplotype." This marker is carried by about half of those who claim descent from Aaron, Moses' brother, and only 2-3% of other Jews.
But, the Book of Mormon does not suggest—and in fact seems to exclude—the idea that Levites (the priestly family of Aaron) were among the Lehi party. Without priestly families, one would not expect to find the Cohen modal haplotype! Yet, only 2-3% of modern Jews from non-priestly families (to say nothing of Ephraim and Manasseh—remember, Lehi and company are not "Jews") can be identified by this test. [1] Are these 97-98% of modern Jews then not Jews because the genetic test is negative for them? Excluding the Nephites on the basis of such a poor test that we would not even expect them to pass (since they do not include Levitical families) shows how far the critics will twist the evidence to find fault.
Response to claim: 129 - In Mesoamerica, there is no genetic support for European lineages
The author(s) of Losing a Lost Tribe make(s) the following claim:
In Mesoamerica, there is no genetic support for European lineages.
Author's sources: *No source given.