Take a moment to subscribe to the Biblical Archaeology Review for it is a must for the avocational biblical archaeologist. According to a new scientific study, Jews are the genetic brothers of Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese, and they all share a common genetic lineage that stretches back thousands of years. This genetic brotherhood does not include non-Jewish Europeans. The researchers analyzed the Y chromosome, which is usually passed unchanged from father to son, of more than 1,000 men worldwide. Throughout human history, alterations have occurred in the sequence of chemical bases that make up the DNA in this so-called male chromosome, leaving variations that can be pinpointed with modern genetic techniques.
Related populations carry the same specific variations.
In this way, scientists can track descendants of large populations and determine their common ancestors. If they had, then Jewish men from different regions of the world would not share the same genetic signatures in their Y chromosome. The heated debate as to whether or not the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel compose the biblical and therefore the prophetic identity of the United States, Britain, and several European countries, continues to seethe. While the findings of historians, linguists and archeologists are of great import they have not established with any certainty that Americans of northern European descent, the British, and northern European peoples are indeed the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of the House of Israel. While the study is not conclusive in explaining the fate of the Ten Lost Tribes it is a giant step in the direction of bringing scientific evidence to bear.