Israelites, Josephus, and the Parthian Empire
Posted on January 18, 2007
Filed Under Ephraim (Multitude of Nations), Flavius Josephus, House of Joseph (Joes), Two House (Reality) Theology
Flavius Josephus is one of the best 1st Century historians we have from the Middle East. He was employed by the Romans, but he was a Jew, giving him a very unique perspective having lived through the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70CE. The main reason I bring him up now is because of what he implies in his writings about Central Asia and the possible connections with the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup K, but more specifically the child haplogroups, R and Q (See map). Below is one of his quotes not commonly known (especially amongst secular population geneticists) regarding the ten lost tribes of Israel, who were brought into Assyrian Captivity more than 800 years prior to the life of Josephus:
“…wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.” Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI (Ch. 5)
When Josephus was writing the “Antiquities of the Jews”, the Euphrates River had been the armistice line for many many decades between the Roman Empire of the West and Parthian Empire of the East. He was treading on thin ice to even bring up this subject and if you read the whole passage you’ll see he never brings up “Parthia” by name and for good reason, most notably: self-preservation. Rome and Parthia were about to start up their wars again. In the next century, both sides lost so many men in their conflicts that Rome would soon be fighting civil wars and Parthia would completely collapse. The surrounding Saka/Scythians, many not formally a part of the Parthian Empire, were strong allies with Parthia and even fought together against Rome (many believe the Parthians were of Scythian stock themselves).
Parthia’s disintegration in particular is what many historians believe was the catalyst for what became known as the “Great Migration Period” where a flood of humanity poured into Europe from Central Asia. You’re probably aware of these migrating peoples: the Huns, Vandals, Saxons, Angles, Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, etc. They show up two hundred years after the Parthian demise… exploding out of Asia. What is noteworthy, many centuries later, is the fact that the Saxons called back to “Scythia” for re-enforcements when invading Britannia (British Isles).
Personally, I think population geneticists are exaggerating about how much time exists between us and the originators of various haplogroups, largely because of radio-carbon dating. This isn’t based on gut-feeling alone, for in much of my reading so far, I’m convinced the geneticists have under-estimated how rapidly the human genome is mutating and they overlook common historical migration facts. For example, Central Asians rapidly poured into Europe within a few hundred years to a couple thousand years, NOT tens of thousands of years.
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4 Responses to “Israelites, Josephus, and the Parthian Empire”
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If we take the Bible literally, genetic science is a problem for a theory of Jewish dispersion. Both Isaac and Ishmael would have inherited Abraham’s Y-DNA. Male descendants of both sons would continue to “match” genetically to this day.
That is a thoughtful suggestion, but the reality is much more complicated.
Personally, I believe every male on planet earth can be traced back to Noah, since he was the bottleneck after the Great Flood (Scripture gives me no indication that this was a figurative occurrence limited only to Mesopotamia). If the problem you suggest is indeed the reality, then theoretically all males today would have the exact y-chromosome markers as Noah. But that is certainly not the case because of mutation within the human genome since Noah. If one of Isaak’s descendents or Isaak himself (or any patriarch) had a mutation in Y-data, then his direct male descendants would have that same mutation in their Y-data , unless some of those descendants had more mutations which overlapped or overwrote previous mutations. This in fact happens all the time, in every generation, which is why yDNA and mtDNA testing is so useful in traditional genealogy research. It helps genealogists triangulate where mutations occured and it also helps reinforce a person’s genealogy paper trail which is often filled with many holes and speculations. DNA leaves little room for speculation. (=
Thanks for bringing up such an important point.
If you want to see how useful DNA testing is, click on the Family Tree DNA link in the right column and see if your Surname already has a DNA project underway. You’ll understand the ramifications once you’ve actually been tested and see your own results and compare them to relatives.
I had Family Tree test my mtDNA. My haplogroup is T1.
All men are genetically related through one Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) who probably lived in Africa. Now what’s up, brother?
You should probably put emphasis on the word “probably”. This probability is largely hinged upon evolutionary theory, which has some foundational premises which have the rock solid characteristics of a religion and not true science. The “Out of Africa” THEORY is truly the consensus amongst population geneticists, but “consensus” has no place in science. The sciences strive to deliver proofs. Consensus is generally not based upon “proofs” but generally held beliefs. Furthermore, I have yet to see any proofs for the Out-of-Africa theory. Nor have I seen any proof for the 60,000-65,000 estimated time-frame. Would love to see it. And I’m continually looking for it in my research.
Shalom.