Nadene Goldfoot
There was once this kingdom of Israel that started off with Saul as king. After him, David (1010-970 BCE) became the king and started the Davidic line of kings that went on till Zedekiah( 597-586 BCE); for 424 years of a Davidic line of rulers.
Kings David and his son, Solomon were the best remembered in our scriptures, and after Solomon died, his son, Rehoboam started off a history not to be forgotten, for that was the time that the country had a Civil War and divided between the northern kingdom of Israel with their king being Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim who had been the superintendent of forced labor during Solomon's reign and had led the revolt causing the Civil War between the North (Israel) and the South(Judah). They actually fought each other as sure as North America's Civil War (1861-1865).
Nebuchadnezzar took away thousands to Babylon, ending Judah as a statehood. In such a tragedy to a people, the only people who kept tract of who was born or died were people of royalty, at least for a little while. Those who could, returned to Jerusalem from Babylon after a 70 year period and that was done with permission and direction from King Cyrus of Persia who had taken over from Nebuchadnezzar.
Zedekiah was king of Judah from 597 to 586 BCE and was the son of Josiah. He was born with the name of Mattaniah, but changed it to Zedekiah when he was appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar to be the successor of the exiled King Jehoiachin. He became king at the age of 21, but there was a hitch. He had to swear allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, so he was a puppet king.
In the early days of his kingship, he refused to join an anti-Babylonian coalition of neighboring kingdoms who were also affected by the takeover of Nebuchadnezzar. By 594 BCE he actually visited Babylon to see what it was like (Jer.51-59).
In the 9th year of his reign at age 30, he broke down and conspired with Egypt. That caused the Babylonians to invade Judah again and this time they again captured Jerusalem. Zedekiah was overtaken while trying to escape and was brought for trial before Nebuchadnezzar himself.
His sons were killed right in front of him and then his eyes were put out. They threw him in prison in Babylon where he stayed until he died there. (II Kings 25; Jer. 52).
They didn't have normal access to the sea and commanded no great trade-route, and they occupied no more than 1/3 of the area of the northern kingdom of Israel. Judah was poor and unimportant as compared with Israel. That's why Assyria wanted Israel who had taken away the best of their population previously.
On the other hand, the positive side was that it did not become involved to the same extent in international rivalries, and its existence was more tranquil. Nobody was interested in it enough to attack before.
For all these reasons, because Jerusalem was in Judah and contained THE TEMPLE, Judah was able to retain its Mosaic monotheism in a purer form. The religion had been able to carry on after Israel was carted away. Until toward its last days, Judah's dynastic history was more settled, and the monarchy generally passed peacefully from father to son in the Davidic house, except for the usurpation of Athaliah in 843-37. That's a bit of history missing from Matthew in the New Testament who starts off his writing with a genealogy of Judean kings with a few differences.
Athalia was the daughter of Ahab, king of Israel and Jezebel. She was Queen of Judah from 842-836 BCE. She was married to Jehoram/Joram, king of Judah, son of Jehoshaphat king from 850-843 BCE. He was a nasty king, putting his brothers and many of the leading men of state to death. Yet he was influenced by his equally mean wife, Athalia who influenced him to introduce the Baal cult into Judah. Both were bad news for Judah. Under his reign, the Edomites revolted and the Philistines invaded and Arabs came and plundered Jerusalem. Joram died of an illness and Athalia took over. When her son, Ahaziah died who was king for only one year, she exterminated the entire royal family except for her grandson, Joash, who was saved by his aunt Jehosheba. Athalia then seized power and continued to introduce her Baal cult into Judah. She ruled for 6 years when a successful revolt broke out putting Joash in the throne. Athalia was put to death.
A period of political and commercial expansion under Jehoshophat (875-851 BCE),, in alliance with Ahab of Israel, had ended badly.
Hezekiah (720-692 BCE) and Josiah (637-608 BCE) were especially associated with periods of religious revival.
The Assyrian expansion, which had overwhelmed the Northern kingdom of Israel, was checked before the walls of Jerusalem in 701 BCE, but the city and state succumbed to the Babylonians with Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE with large numbers of the inhabitants being deported. An attempt to perpetuate a subject state under Gedaliah, a member of the former royal house of David ended with his assassination in 582 BCE.
The descendants of the exiles in Babylonia continued to cherish their national and religious ideals so steadfastly as to make possible the renewal of Jewish life after 539 BCE in the area of the former kingdom of Jerusalem.
In contrast to its relative political obscurity, the intellectual and spiritual life of Judah was extraordinarily rich. It was there that most of the canonical prophets carried on their activity, great parts of the Bible were composed and the essential traditions of Judaism were developed and preserved.
Our genealogy tracing of the kings ends with Zedekiah. I note that the New Testament does not. They have added more to reach Jesus, which is another one of those fairly common first names in our history. Our kings kept good genealogies because to sit on the panel of Cohens in the Sanhedrin, it was the prerequisite, just as important as a college degree is to us. In order to serve, they had to show their pedigree, and it was no doubt checked.
Descendants of king of Judah, Josiah
1 king of Judah Josiah, b: in 645 BCE
. 2 Jehoahaz "Shallum, king of Judah, d: in died in Egyptian captivity in Egypt
. 2 Jehoiakim "Eliakim,"king of Judah."d: in 598 BCE, died in Jerusalem when under siege by Babylonians
..... 3 SHEALTIEL
..... 3 King of Judah Jehoiachin (597 BCE)king at 18 during Babylonian siege, king for 3 months, 10 days, taken in exile to Babylonia, not released until 561 BCE.
. 2 Zedekiah "Mattaniah", King of Judah (597-586 BCE)
Though Johoiakin (598-597) was king for a year before Zedekiah's rule, Nebuchadnezzar had to go back to Josiah to select his son, Zedekiah to rule.
Israel fell in 70 CE to the Romans when they burned down Jerusalem, including the Temple. The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted between 516 BCE and 70 CE
Gedaliah, of a noble family, became the Governor of Judah, appointed by the Babylonians after the destruction of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE, governing from Mizpah and shortly afterwards murdered by the commander Ishmael ben Nethaniah and his followers who were planning a revolt from Babylonia. Gedaliah's supporters fled to Egypt.
Out of the Sanhedrin, who were made up of Cohens usually, which was part of their job description, came our outstanding rabbis. In my own genealogy I've discovered a connection going back to Rabbi Solomon Yitzhaki which means ben Isaac. RASHI (1040-1105) born in France who studied in the Rhineland, a very famous rabbi. Rashi had an extensive family tree that went back to King David. Remember, in those days, surnames were not in use as yet with Jews.
As for American genealogy of today with all our written resources, and genealogical aids such as software and websites, we do pretty well to be able to go back to the 1700s, some even further if their history is from England. I've been stumped on finding an Abiathar Smith Robinson's father for lack of a paper trail. There were a lot of fires in those days when he was born in 1829. Our country's history started in 1620 with the Mayflower entering our waters and the country wasn't created until 1776. I've tried at least 12 different possibilities of a father of his, even using DNA as an aid, and have settled on one man, but I'm not entirely sure without more DNA proof which is carried by the man, and not a woman. What I'm saying is that we're not always sure until DNA was discovered in our generation. I've even seen some confusion around Athalia with our records.
As for Cohens (J1, J2), "The data show that the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to belong to Haplogroup J than the average non-Cohen Jew. Of those who did belong to Haplogroup J, the Kohanim were more than twice as likely to have an STR pattern close to the CMH-6, suggesting a much more recent common ancestry for most of them compared to an average non-Kohen Jew of Haplogroup J." So they are saying that a Jew may have J1 to be from the Kohanim or Cohens from Aaron) but could still have the haplogroup of J1. Hmm.
| xDE[6] | xDE,PR[1] | Hg J[7] | CMH.1[1] | CMH[1] | CMH.1/HgJ | CMH/HgJ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashkenazi Cohanim (AC): | 98.5% | 96% | 87% | 69% | 45% | 79% | 52% | |
| Sephardic Cohanim (SC): | 100% | 88% | 75% | 61% | 56% | 81% | 75% | |
| Ashkenazi Jews (AI): | 82% | 62% | 37% | 15% | 13% | 40% | 35% | |
| Sephardic Jews (SI): | 85% | 63% | 37% | 14% | 10% | 38% | 27% |
The tribe of Levi included Aaron, brother of Moses who was given the responsibility of the high priest. All of Aaron's descendants were thus Cohens. Not all Levites were the Cohens but also carried the Y haplogroup of Levi.
The Kohen hypothesis was first tested through DNA analysis in 1997 by Prof. Karl Skorecki and collaborators from Haifa, Israel. In their study, "Y chromosomes of Jewish priests," published in the journal Nature, they found that the Kohanim appeared to share a different probability distribution compared to the rest of the Jewish population for the two Y-chromosome markers they tested (YAP and DYS19). My brother, not a Cohen of J1 or J2 has a DYS19 of a 13. Another, a J-M267, Hochfeld, has a 14. He also had starred, DYS38911 was a 30. My brother also had a 30 in that place. Hochfeld had from FTDNA a badge saying he is the Cohen Model Haplotype. "If you have a The Cohen Modal Haplotype badge in the Badges section of your dashboard, it means that you match or are close to the historic Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). One of the earliest Y-chromosome population genetics studies documented the CMH." Skorecki lists a YAP also showing Cohen Model DNA which is a new one on me. It's haplogroup DE, again an unknown to me. DNA analysis is deepening. You just need a good company to analyze your DNA like FTDNA.
Hammer and Skorecki were part of the first research group in 1999 that found the DNA marker signature of the Cohanim, termed the Cohen Modal Haplotype. Today, Hammer and his colleagues are able to use a much larger battery of DNA markers and consequently able to develop a more fully resolved Cohen Modal Haplotype called the extended Cohen Modal Haplotype. The smaller number of markers used in the original Cohanim studies did not allow for full resolution of the history of the Jewish priesthood.
Additional Y chromosome lineages that are distinct from that defined by the extended Cohen Modal Haplotype, but also shared among Cohanim from different Jewish communities, reveal that the priesthood was established by several unrelated male lines. Since this honor is orally passed on from father to son, Hochfeld knew he was a Cohen when he was a child. He was one of the first in the synagogue to read from the Torah on Saturday, the day of Shabbat. He was lucky to have had a father to tell him things. Not all Cohens have been that lucky. Thus-DNA testing tells the story. Keep in mind that while the CMH (Cohen Model Haplotype) was the most frequent haplotype found in Cohanim men, it was not the only haplotype. Therefore, if you have an oral tradition of being Cohanim, then you most likely are genetically a Cohen. If you do not have a tradition of being Cohanim and if your ancestors were Jewish, then you come from the same genetic Gene Pool. While not being directly from the line of Aaron, you could be descended from one of his numerous male relatives. Three percent of Jewish males who identify as Yisrael have the CMH.
From surveys of markers in Jewish cemeteries, about 5% of Jewish men have historically been Cohanim. Genetic research indicates that many Jewish men who self-identify as Cohanim belong to the Y-chromosome DNA lineage that is most common in the Cohanim. That is, they belong to the Cohanim Modal Haplotype (CMH). Further, in a study conducted in Israel where men were asked at random if they were Cohanim, Levite, or Israel, of those answering Israel, about 3% when tested were part of the CMH lineage.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Matthew of New Testament
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Aaron
https://news.arizona.edu/story/new-genetic-research-indicates-jewish-priesthood-has-multiple-lineages
https://learn.familytreedna.com/jewish-dna-testing/percent-jews-carry-cohanim-modal-haplotype-cmh/
https://learn.familytreedna.com/jewish-dna-testing/cohen-match-badge/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Judah
https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/03/timeline-of-judean-kings-after-zedekiah.html
I'm an amateur genealogist using Family Tree Maker as my software.Besides my own family, I've also put the genealogy found in our Tanakh and Jewish encyclopoedia in there as well, showing me some interesting facts.
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