Miro C
@MiroCyo
12 Oct 2023
Geneticists have had access to ancient DNA whole genome sequences from Canaanites, Israelites, Judahites for some time now.

First genetic distances to modern people below. I will be providing lots of information in this thread

These are all samples recovered from the Bronze Age and Iron Age Levant, dated to differing time periods and coming from different cultures. They are all genetically similar to one another.

Closest people are usually Christian Levantines > Many Jewish groups > Muslims > Other Jewish groups

Ancient DNA samples are almost always released to the public, and are investigated by thousands if not millions of hobbyists all the time. There are no serious disagreements about these findings and they are supported by multiple publications, labs, and independent verifications. You can in fact learn how to use these tools yourself. You don't have to be an expert.

Note:

Genetic distances of around 0.02 or under mean a group is practically genetically indistinguishable to the people being compared.

Around 0.05 implies distinguishability but still belonging to the same genetic regional grouping (regional groupings of a sub-racial grouping, like Northwestern European, or Arabian, or Eastern European).

Around 0.10 implies the edge of differentiating into 'racial' clusters (what we now call 'population groups'). Things like 'European', 'Middle Eastern', 'East Asian', 'South Asian'.

Distances of over 0.3/0.4 imply extreme differentiation, equivalent to that found in different subspecies. For example the distance between domestic dogs and grey wolves is under 0.4.

If someone requests I will scroll through all the modern populations as it is a long list and I could only provide the top results

Palestinian Christians are almost genetically indistinguishable from Roman-era Levantines, people of the time of Jesus Christ, the Apostles, etc.

It provides interesting speculation as to their origin. Perhaps they descend from such people, the first Jews to convert to Christianity

Almost all Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the region carry noticeable Bronze Age/Iron Age Levantine ancestry. This means that almost all modern Levantines are at least partially (some overwhelmingly), descended from Israelites or people genetically indistinguishable from them

As you can see Samaritans (yes they still exist, but they are dying out) arealmost indistinguishable from not just Israelites, but even Bronze Age Canaanites. Very impressive continuity. But it comes at the cost of serious inbreeding. There are only a couple hundred of them left

Everyone else (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) has mixed non-Middle Eastern ancestry, the majority of it being European (Greek and even Bactrian ancestry that entered the Levant after Alexanders conquests). Muslim Levantines also carry ~3-5% sub-Saharan African ancestry on average that Christians and Jews mostly lack, and a noticeable chunk of Arabian ancestry, but that is lower than most people would expect.

You can see this ancestry being picked up more when we stop using Bronze Age and Iron Age populations to model modern ethnic groups, and instead use Roman-era populations

Jews, Muslims, and Christians of the Levant today descend mostly from Middle Eastern groups that form a broad racial cluster.

Some are more like Mesopotamians, others like Arabians or Levantines. But these differences aren't much more significant than the differences between Swedes, English, Italians, and Greeks.

Eblaites and Amorites also form a cline and are part of the same regional population as Canaanites, Israelites, etc.

The reason Christian Levantines are closest the Canaanites, Israelites, Roman-era Jews, etc is because they never relinquished their religion, and therefore never mixed with other groups after the Islamic invasion. Those Christians who converted to Islam now had opportunities to mix with other Muslims, and even slaves from sub-Saharan Africa.

This is what it looks like happened.

The Bronze Age inhabitants of the region were Canaanites, Amorites, Eblaites, etc. The ancestors of the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, etc also came from the BA Levant.

A subgroup of Canaanites became Israelites (they are genetically indistinguishable from Canaanites). This subgroup remains largely similar to each other until Alexander conquers the entire Middle East.

Then, Greek and Bactrian ancestry start entering the Levant. At this time, Samaritans split off from the ancestors of Jews, Christians, and Muslims of the Levant.

They are the first to split off. This is because they barely mixed with the incoming Greek/Bactrian groups.

The new population Roman-era Levantines are almost indistinguishable from modern day Palestinian Christians, Lebanese Christians, etc. They stay like this till the modern period, refusing to mix with Muslim Arabs (they weren't allowed to regardless) and not usually being allowed to own slaves.

This is where Levantine Muslims (Palestinian Muslims, Lebanese Muslims, etc) split off from the Christians - some Christians convert to Islam. They are now allowed to own slaves from Africa, and mix with Arabians and Egyptians and other Muslim groups. They carry some of this foreign ancestry.

Before, during, and after Alexanders invasion you had many other Jewish groups of course, splitting off and going to Europe and North Africa, being forcibly deported to Mesopotamia, etc. They are the only ones who either

1: didnt convert to the Arabian religion
2: didnt convert to the new religion that was formed/evolved through Judaism

The truth is, everyone in the Levant is overwhelmingly descended from ancient Jews, or at the very least those genetically indistinguishable from ancient Jews.

Lots of Muslims like to exxagerate their relationship to Arabians, since that is where their religion is from, and their prophet was an Arabian. The truth, for better or worse, is that almost none of them carry much Arabian ancestry. Only Negev Bedouins and Yemenite Jews do.