Genetics and the Book of Mormon
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The Book of Mormon, the primary book of scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is purported to be an account of a relatively small number of Hebrew individuals who emigrated from the Middle East to the Americas during biblical times. Since the late 1990s and the pioneering work of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and others, scientists have developed potent techniques to use genetic markers to indicate the ethnic background and history of individual people. It has thus become possible to directly compare genetic evidence of the ethnic background of Native Americans with the story of the Book of Mormon. Studies show that Native Americans have very distinctive DNA markers, and that are most similar, among old world populations, to the DNA of people anciently associated with the Altay Mountains area of central Asia, near the intersections of Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. A number of geneticists have indicated that genetic comparison does not appear to support the story in the Book of Mormon, while some Latter Day Saint advocates have argued instead that genetic markers show consistency with the story of the Book of Mormon. An argument by LDS scientists is that the DNA taken from modern day Israelis has been intermixed with DNA from many other nations, thus they do not contain the same traits that Israelites once had, back when Lehi left Israel. Also, Native Americans have been intermixed, distorting their ancestors' true DNA as well.
[edit] Overview of the genetic challenge to the Book of Mormon story
[edit] The Asiatic Origin of the Jaredites
The Jaredites were a group of people that left the Middle East around the time of the tower of Babel and which some believe to be the ancestors to the Mongolian/Chinese people, as well as the Native Americans. The Book of Mormon tells of their leaving the area and populating the new world but does not give any information about their genetic or genealogical background. This is where many believe that the Lamanites get their Asiatic heritage from.[citation needed]
[edit] The Semitic Origin of Lehi
The Book of Mormon tells the story of a small group of Israelites, led by a prophet named Lehi, who flee Jerusalem around 600 BCE and travel to the Americas. Two of Lehi's sons, Laman and Nephi, become the fathers of two separate nations, the Lamanites and the Nephites. The parent DNA of these two nations would likely have come from one of five people: Lehi, his wife Sariah, Ishmael, his wife (unnamed), or Zoram. Little information is given in the Book of Mormon about the genetic background of these people, but it is stated that Lehi is a descendant (possibly, but not necessarily, patrilineal) of Manasseh. It is uncertain whether other people travelled with Lehi's party to the Americas. For the context of the debate regarding genetics and the Book of Mormon, it is usually assumed that Lehi and his party had mostly Semitic genes.
[edit] Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon
According to the Book of Mormon, the terms "Nephites" and "Lamanites" actually lose their original significance pursuant to the visitation of Jesus Christ to the American continent after His resurrection; His coming ushers in a period of peace in which the two conflicting nations merge into one, in which "There [are] no robbers, nor murderers, neither [are] there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they [are] in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God" (4 Nephi 1:17). But later on in the narrative, as members of the unified nation fall away from the faith, the term "Lamanite" comes to signify wickedness (rather than blood heritage), whereas "Nephite" comes to signify a follower of Christ, both terms alluding to the previous nations' predominant moral tendencies. Eventually, however, even the righteous "Nephites" grow proud and fall into wickedness comparable to that of those termed Lamanites, though they retain the now rather hypocritical distinction "Nephites." The Nephites do battle with the Lamanites perpetually, until finally around 400 CE the Nephites are said to have been annihilated by the Lamanites. The nation of the Lamanites is understood to have continued on beyond the close of the Book of Mormon and some are said to be the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans.
[edit] The Genetic Challenge
The genetic challenge centers on the claims of the Book of Mormon that the Lamanites, descended from Lehi, are a "remnant of the House of Israel" and the "principal ancestors of the American Indians", as is stated on the book's title page. Therefore, a literal reading of the Book of Mormon suggests that modern-day Native Americans are descended from the party of Israelites that migrated to the New World around 600 BC from the Jerusalem area. If this were the case, according to the challenge, then it would reasonably be expected that the DNA of Native Americans would show strong correlations with Semitic genetic markers, consistent with Hebrew descent.
[edit] The genetic evidence compared with the Book of Mormon story
It is well accepted that Native American genetic markers are dominated by indicators of descendancy from peoples of Siberia and northeast Asia, with a remainder consistent with genetic admixture after European contact in 1492. Some genetic researchers such as Thomas W. Murphy and Simon Southerton emphasized that the substantial collection of Native American genetic markers now available are not consistent with any detectable presence of ancestors from the ancient Middle East, and argued that this poses substantial evidence to contradict the account in the Book of Mormon.
[edit] Rebuttals from Book of Mormon defenders
Defenders of the LDS Church have made arguments in return, generally centered on an argument that the Book of Mormon peoples from the Middle East formed only a small contribution to the population of the Americas, so that their genetic heritage may have been diluted beyond what can now be detected, so that the absence of evidence for Middle Eastern ancestors is not evidence of absence of the same. This has come to be known as the "limited geography" model of the Book of Mormon. This model may be particularly true, it is argued, because the Book of Mormon describes at least one major group of its Hebrew-descended peoples, the Nephites, being entirely wiped out during the fourth century AD. However, critics of this model will point out that the remaining group, the Lamanites, are also said to be of Hebrew origin, and that they are the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans.
Critics of the "limited geography" model also point out that the Book of Mormon does not make any clear reference to any other people groups that may have existed in the Americas, that would account for the dilution of the Semitic genetic markers in the New World. Other portions of the book suggest that the land was virtually empty of people upon the arrival of the Israelite party in 600 BCE. Therefore, it is argued, a traditional, literal reading of the Book of Mormon suggests that most, if not all, the ancestry of the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas came from this Hebrew migration in ancient times.
Another argument by LDS scientists is that the DNA taken from modern day Israelis has been intermixed with DNA from many other nations, thus they do not contain the same traits that Israelites once had, back when Lehi left Isreal. Also, Native Americans have been intermixed, distorting their ancestors' true DNA as well.
[edit] Rebuttal of LA Times report by William Lobdell
An article written by William Lobdell and published in the LA Times on 16 February 2006 contains the following. “For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error.” Later in the article, Lobdell cites Simon Southerton as a source. [1]
Pro-LDS critics have taken exception to Lobdell's characterization of the LDS Church accepting the Book of Mormon as "without error", since its title page includes a note by the Prophet Moroni that reads, “And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God” [2] Although, Joseph Smith called the Book of Mormon the most correct of any book.
Pro-LDS critics have also focused attention on one genetic haplotype as potentially providing evidence in favor of a link between Hebrew DNA and Native American DNA. The haplotype in question, known as Q-P36, is found in 31% of self-identified Native Americans in the US. (Hammer 2005, page 5, figure 1)[3] It is also found in 5% of Ashkenazi Jews (Behar 2004, page 357, table 2) [4] and 5% of Iraqi Jews. In addition, a rare branch of Q-P36, called Q-M323, is found in Yemeni Jews.(Shen 2004, page 251 Figure 1) [5]
[edit] Origin of Q-P36
Recent studies indicate that "The mutational age of Q-P36*, the marker defining the entire Q lineage, is 17,700 ± 4,820 years BP", and that its original source is the region of the Altay Mountains near the borders of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and China (Zegura et al., Mol. Biol. Evol. 21(1):164-175. 2004). Zegura further notes, "as a caveat", that a population might have moved into the region of the Altay Mountains from an earlier source, "presumably from the southwest", because "all Native Americans can ultimately be traced to a dispersal from Africa", in common with all other human populations according to the scientific consensus.
Other research, 'The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity' postulates that Q-P36 first arose somewhere in Central Asia.[6] Table 3 from Zegura's research is the source from which the 17,700 ± 4,820 years BP dates seems to have been extracted. This date applies to the latest common ancestor of Altaians and Native Americans with Q-P36 lineage. This ancestor may or may not be the original Q-P36.
[edit] Mutation Rates
Generally speaking, mutation rates pertain to STR rather than SNP mutations. The former occur frequently enough to be useful in paternity testing while the latter can be used to make an educated guess about the lineage of an individual. Average STR mutation rates of 2.8 per 1,000 have been observed in father/son pairs. (Kayser 2000) [7] The Zegura research cited above, used an "effective" mutation rate of 0.7 per 1,000. This is done on the premise that various factors can make a lineage look younger than it really is. In point of fact, however, the effective mutation rate used by Zegura is theoretical. Applying the observed mutation rate to Zegura's calculations yields a lower bound of 2725 years BP.
[edit] Rebuttal of specific statements made by Thomas Murphy
Thomas Murphy has made statements to the effect that DNA research indicates that the ancestors of Native Americans came from North East Asia. [8] This conflicts with modern findings indicating that the closest genetic match to Native Americans is in central Asia, around the area of the Altay Mountains, as noted above. Prevailing theory also holds that the peopling of America was accomplished by one to three migration events rather than a continuous flow of people from Eastern Siberia. (PNAS 28 August 2001 10244–10249 vol. 98 no. 18)
[edit] Counter-rebuttal: relative contribution of believed Hebrew ancestry
While the typical rebuttal depends on the Book of Mormon peoples having constituted only a small fraction of the ancestry of Native Americans, critics indicate that presidents of the LDS Church have made several references to the Book of Mormon peoples being the principal ancestors of the Native Americans. In fact, the introduction to the current edition of the Book of Mormon states in part: "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians." (see lds.org)
[edit] Counter-rebuttal: comparison with the Lemba
A counterargument to this rebuttal has been made by comparison with the Lemba ethnic group in southern Africa. The Lemba, a Black, Bantu-speaking people, practiced a religion very similar to Judaism, and had oral traditions that their ancestors were Jews who sailed to southern Africa from an ancestral land called Sena. They also had a patrilineal priestly clan called the Buba. After the advent of historical genetics, it was found that the Lemba did indeed have a preponderance of genetic markers on their Y chromosome indicating over 80% of their ancestry was non-Arab Semitic; and even that their priestly Buba clan had a high frequency of a set of genetic markers known as the Cohen modal haplotype, which has been found to strongly correlate with members of the Kohanim, or traditional patrilineal Jewish priestly clan, living in Israel.
It has been calculated that the Lemba separated from the main body of Jews about three to five thousand before the present. The main group in the Book of Mormon is said to have left the Middle East about 2,600 years before the present. Therefore, it is argued, if the genetic evidence of Jewish descendancy remained so distinctly preserved in the Lemba during thousands of years of being surrounded by unrelated ethnic groups in southern Africa, there seems no reason why the same could not have been true of an analogous group in the Americas over about the same timeframe.
[edit] Fate of LDS genetic scientists
Murphy and Southerton were both members of the LDS Church when they began publishing their arguments that the Book of Mormon is not consistent with current genetic evidence. Murphy gained significant media attention when his local church authorities suggested that he must recant his evidence or be excommunicated from the church. Murphy currently remains a member. Southerton, who was formerly a bishop of an LDS congregation, has since been excommunicated from the church [citation needed].
[edit] External links
- Tom Murphy's Home Page
- LDS Church Response by the LDS Church after Murphy's essay in American Apocrypha: More Essays on the Book of Mormon.
- Native American DNA and its Impact on Mormonism by Simon G. Southerton
- 'Y chromosomes traveling south: the cohen modal haplotype and the origins of the Lemba--the "Black Jews of Southern Africa"', M.G. Thomas et al., American Journal of Human Genetics, Feb. 2000;66(2):674-86.
[edit] Bibliography
- Murphy, Thomas W. "Inventing Galileo." Sunstone, March, 2004: 58-61.
- Murphy, Thomas W. Imagining Lamanites: Native Americans and the Book of Mormon, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2003.
- Murphy, Thomas W. "Simply Implausible: DNA and a Mesoamerican Setting for the Book of Mormon." Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 36(4) [Winter, 2003]: 109-131.
- Murphy, Thomas W. "Genetic Research a 'Galileo Event' for Mormons." Anthropology News 44(2) [February, 2003]: 20.
- Murphy, Thomas W. "Lamanite Genesis, Genealogy, and Genetics." In Vogel, Dan and Brent Metcalfe, eds. American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon Salt Lake City: Signature, 2002: 47-77. ISBN 1-56085-151-1
- Southerton, Simon G. Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church (2004, ISBN 1-56085-181-3)
- Living Hope Ministries, DNA vs. The Book of Mormon (video), 2003.
