King David's Genes: Who Inherited Them?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

King David received his genes: Y haplotpye of DNA J1 from his fathers and MT haplotype of DNA from his mothers mothers  from a long line of history, clear back in a direct line to Methuselah.

 It went like this: David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah and brother of Zeruiah, son of Oved, son of Boaz and Ruth, son of Judah, son of Jacob and Leah, son of Isaac and Rebekah, son of Abraham and Sarah, son of Terah, son of Nahor I and Iyoska, son of Serug and Milcah, son of Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shelah, Arpachshad, Shem, Noah and Naamah, Lamech, and Methuselah, son of Enoch and father of Lamech who died at age 969 as the oldest person recorded in the Bible.

Jacob's family unit of 70 persons entering Egypt 

 Being he lived almost 1, 000 years, I suppose this takes us back way before the great Flood and maybe into the date of when the Egyptian history started as well, like 7,000 BCE or as close as one can get to 10,000 BCE and the days of mammoths roaming the land.
                                                                     

The Egyptian Semitic Hyksos Dynasty was from the 18th to 16th centuries BCE, which is when the Exodus is thought to have happened, though Jewish calendars list Moses as having lived from 1391 to 1271 BCE.  Mathematicians figured that the Exodus happened 480 years before the 1st Temple was built by King Solomon who lived from 961 to 920 BCE.

.    Of course each male most likely had many sons of his own such as Judah who had Boaz, Hur, Er who  married  Tamar (daughter of King David and sister of Absalom)  and Onan.

King David had several wives;
1. Abigail, who had 2 sons, Adonijah and Daniel; first married to Nabal, wealthy Calebite of tribe of Judah who refused food to David for his troops, David kept from attacking him for refusing by Abigail who gave David food secretly causing Nabal to have a stroke and then died.
2. Michal, daughter of King Saul, Israel's 1st king who was childless; Saul was son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, son of Jacob and Rachel,
3. Ahinoam of Jezreel who had a son, Amnon ; and
4..  Maacah was another wife who had David's 3rd son, Absalom and a daughter, Tamar.
5. Bathsheba, who had Solomon. Bathsheba had been married to Uriah, the Hittite who was a soldier for David, but he died in battle.

Solomon's wife, Naamah the Ammonite had Rehoboam.  Ammonites lived in what became Transjordan.  They also were a Semitic tribe related to the Israelites.  They were eventually absorbed into the Arab tribes.  They frequently attacked the Israelites who were defeated by Jephthah and King Saul.  David annexed their kingdom but they became independent and attacked Judah on several occasions.  It was their King Baalis who caused the murder of Gedaliah in order to weaken Judah.


Rehoboam, son of Solomon and Naamah, king during 933-917 BCE was the 1st king of the newly split Judah.
 Abijam, son of Rehoboam,  king during  917-915 BCE.
Asa was king during 915-875 BCE.
 Jehoshaphat was king during 875-851 BCE;
Jehoram was king during 851-844 BCE.
Ahaziah was king from 844-843 BCE;
Athaliah was king from 843 to 837 BCE;
Joash was king from 837 to 798 BCE;
Amaziah was king from 798 to 780 BCE;
Azariah or Uzziah was king from 780 to 740 BCE;
Jotham was king from 740 to 735 BCE;
Ahaz was king from 735 to 720 BCE;
Hezekiah was an outstanding  king of Judah from 720 to 692 BCE;  
Manasseh was king from 692 to 638 BCE, becoming king at age 12 and was one of the worst of the kings;
Amon was king from 642 to 640 BCE becoming king at age 22 but was killed by conspirators;
Josiah was an excellent king from 637 to 608 BCE becoming king at age 8;
Shallum or Jehoahaz in 608 BCE for 3 months, deposed and arrested by Pharaoh Necoh and died in captivity in Egypt;
Eliakim or Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah from 608 to 598 BCE made king to replace Jehoahaz, his brother, subject to Egypt, then a Babylonian vassal.  died while Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians in 598 BCE;
Coniah/ Jeconiah or Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim  from 598 to 597 BCE at age 18, reigned for 3 months and 10 days before capitulating to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, remained in detention  until accession of Evil-Merodach  in 561 BCE when he was released;   and the last king of the royal line was
Mattaniah or Zedekiah, son of Josiah became king at age 21 from 597 to 586 BCE when they were attacked by the Babylonians.  His sons were killed in front of him and his eyes were put out.  Then he was imprisoned in Babylon until his death, because he was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar and swore allegiance to him but after 9 years of ruling he conspired with Egypt causing the Babylonians to invade his kingdom and capture Jerusalem.

I'm going to stop right here and expain something.  This was over 3,000 years ago, and people were just developing.  They married many people and had many children.  Their children and they seemed to have strong sex drives and wanted sex when they had the need, winding up committing rape,  which I've found twice, now.  King David's son by Anhinoam, Amnon, raped his own 1/2 sister, Tamar, daughter of King David by the princess Maachah.  Tamar was the full sister of David's 3rd son, Absalom who had to defend Tamar's honor and killed his own 1/2 brother, Amnon for raping her.
                                                                     
The other rape victim was Dinah, the only sister mentioned in the Bible of Jacob's 12 sons.  She was raped by a man of  Shechem (Nablus),the  city in Canaan that Jacob's family  had moved to, and was avenged by her 2 oldest full brothers, Leah's Levi and Simeon.  They went into the city and killed all the men who were recovering from having circumcised themselves to find favor with Jacob as the rapist  wished to marry Dinah. Today,  Nablus has been the center of fanatical Arab nationalism and wiped out a small Jewish community that formerly existed here.

They had a lot to learn, such as being faithful both to one woman and to one political partner.  I find leaders of today having the very same problems.  The Bible is full of treachery.  Read about Egypt and see.  There, they married their siblings, no matter the ages.  It took time to reach the point of civilization that we find ourselves in, and even at that, find ourselves cheating with some of the expectations, especially over sexual ones.  Men were created to keep this planet full of people, and they seem to enjoy procreating.  There is very little risk to it usually, like giving birth for women.
                                                                         

King David's genes and haplogroup J1 found themselves embedded also in the 12 tribes, the sons of Judah.  Levi was one of the 12.   as well.  Levi's wife was Milkah, and she had 3 sons and a daughter, Jochabed who was the mother  of  Aaron, Moses and Mirium.  The father was Amram.  Jochabed and Amram were slaves in Egypt, descendants of the group of 70, Jacob's family group who had gone into Egypt during a famine.  They had stayed a little too long and had multiplied to the point of frightening the pharaoah about their population explosion who then enslaved them.

The Christians claim that Jesus was a male descendant of King David.  They say this because Judaism calls for the Messiah's pre-requisite of being from the line of King David.  We have nothing in Jewish writings about Jesus or his history.  Besides that, the Christians say that his father is G-d- which means he was not the son of Joseph, the Carpenter who was married to Mary.  This would in itself erase the idea of his being the Jewish Messiah.  Since Jesus did not have any sons, we cannot follow the line and test for DNA a haplogroup as we have with the Jewish people.
                                                                           

King Solomon, son of David, had 1,000 wives and concubines

King Solomon's royal house and court were built up with oriental magnificence.  Sumptuous buildings housed the royal family and harem. With 1,000 wives and concubines, he must have had quite a few sons to carry the J1 Cohen gene.   Solomon's reputation rested on David's achievements with an empire that extended from Egypt to the Euphrates River and was the most energetic in the entire region.  Solomon was known for his wisdom, which didn't include his practice of forced labor for his building projects and high taxes causing his people to rebel.  It is said that King David wasn't to be the builder of the Temple because he was a warrior.  Solomon seemed to realize his position in the world and it went to his head in the desire to show the world how fantastic his realm was in appearance.  He should have stayed with what it represented and had brought to the world; a new way of looking at the law of the land.  Moses was a lawgiver; a judge, a lawyer, and a writer.  Solomon was Moses's 2nd cousin 3 times removed.  He should have thought of Moses who freed his people of slavery instead of expecting his own to slave for him in his own building projects.                                                                  

What is beautiful about the Torah and the Prophets found in our Tanach is that they tell the foibles of our heroes, not just their accomplishments.  It gives us hope that our leadership was human, and that we all call stumble and redeem ourselves.  It is within our grasp.  Other nations tell of their heroes' accomplishments only.

We find that the Cohens of the synagogue, those sons of Aaron who were given the most important job in the synagogue services, to be over half of the population today  with the haplogroup of J1, usually J1c3d.  Because they were under more important rules for marriage and service, they have remained as they were from Aaron.  Cohens were selected from the tribe of Levi.  Aaron, who was the first Cohen, had at least 4 sons that I have counted, probably many more.  They had a good chance of continuing in their position for all eternity.  Moses and Aaron were sons of Jochabed and Amram who were both Levites.  Amram was Jochabed's nephew being Amram's father was Kohath, brother of Jochabed.

Ashkenazim Cohens in synagogues are found to be 98.5% J1 with the Cohen gene.
Sephardim Cohens were 100% J1s
Ashkenazi Jews are found to be 82% J1s.
Sephardim are found to be 85%.  This is from one study shown at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron.

Backing up our history is the fact that many Arabs also carry Abraham's haplogroup of J1 through Ishmael, most likely, or even through Esau, twin brother of Isaac who was left by Isaac over a family feud.  As it was, Esau remained with his parents while Isaac had left, returning about 25 years later.

We all know the story.  Jump ahead and we find David's genes in rabbis in Germany who gathered together in Worms to discuss and study the Torah in about 1,000 CE.   Today we have many Cohens, descendants of Aaron, still serving in the Synagogues.  A synagogue only needs one Cohen during a synagogue service to complete the obligation, and one Levite.  The rest can all be Israelites.

Resource: http://www.womeninthebible.net/Maacah_wife_of_David.htm
http://www.totheends.com/eligible.htm
http://biblehub.com/1_chronicles/24.htm