Origins of Old Testament priests

被引:121
作者
Thomas, MG
Skorecki, K
Ben-Ami, H
Parfitt, T
Bradman, N
Goldstein, DB
机构
[1] UCL, Ctr Genet Anthropol, Dept Biol, London WC1E 6BT, England
[2] UCL, Ctr Genet Anthropol, Dept Anthropol, London WC1E 6BT, England
[3] Technion Israel Inst Technol, Bruce Rappaport Fac Med, IL-31096 Haifa, Israel
[4] Technion Israel Inst Technol, Res Inst, IL-31096 Haifa, Israel
[5] Rambam Med Ctr, IL-31096 Haifa, Israel
[6] Univ London Sch Oriental & African Studies, London WC1H 0XG, England
[7] Univ Oxford, Dept Zool, Oxford OX1 3PS, England
关键词
D O I
10.1038/28083
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
According to Jewish tradition, following the Exodus from Egypt, males of the tribe of Levi, of which Moses was a member, were assigned special religious responsibilities, and male descendants of Aaron, his brother, were selected to serve as Priests (Cohanim). To the extent that patrilineal inheritance has been followed since sometime around the Temple period (roughly 3,000-2,000 years before present), Y chromosomes of present-day Cohanim and Levites should not only be distinguishable from those of other Jews1, but — given the dispersion of the priesthood following the Temple's destruction — they should derive from a common ancestral type no more recently than the Temple period. Here we show that although Levite Y chromosomes are diverse, Cohen chromosomes are homogeneous. We trace the origin of Cohen chromosomes to about 3,000 years before present, early during the Temple period.
引用
收藏
页码:138 / 140
页数:3
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