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Jeffery Lee Goodlove email address: Jefferygoodlove@aol.com
Surnames associated with the name Goodlove have been spelled the following different ways; Cutliff, Cutloaf, Cutlofe, Cutloff, Cutlove, Cutlow, Godlib, Godlof, Godlop, Godlove, Goodfriend, Goodlove, Gotleb, Gotlib, Gotlibowicz, Gotlibs, Gotlieb, Gotlob, Gotlobe, Gotloeb, Gotthilf, Gottlieb, Gottliebova, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlow, Gutfrajnd, Gutleben, Gutlove
The Chronology of the Goodlove, Godlove, Gottlob, Gottlober, Gottlieb (Germany, Russia, Czech etc.), and Allied Families of Battaile, (France), Crawford (Scotland), Harrison (England), Jackson (Ireland), Jefferson, LeClere (France), Lefevre (France), McKinnon (Scotland), Plantagenets (England), Smith (England), Stephenson (England?), Vance (Ireland from Normandy), Washington, Winch (England, traditionally Wales), including correspondence with George Rogers Clark, and including ancestors William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Martin Van Buren, Teddy Roosevelt, U.S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison “The Signer”, Benjamin Harrison, Jimmy Carter, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, William Taft, John Tyler (10th President), James Polk (11th President)Zachary Taylor, and Abraham Lincoln.
The Goodlove Family History Website:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/o/o/Jeffery-Goodlove/index.html
The Goodlove/Godlove/Gottlieb families and their connection to the Cohenim/Surname project:
• New Address! http://wwwfamilytreedna.com/public/goodlove/default.aspx
• • Books written about our unique DNA include:
• “Abraham’s Children, Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People” by Jon Entine.
•
• “ DNA & Tradition, The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews” by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman, 2004.
Birthdays on April 21….
Elizabeth II
Phoebe C. Godlove Funkhouser
Thomas R. Kruse
April J. LeClere
Bartholomew MCKEE
Delbert L. Smith
Louis WilliamEvans
William H. Winch
April 21, 753 BCE: According to tradition, on this Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Considering the impact that Rome would have on the Jewish people this date is worth noting.
752 B.C.
Shallum became the king of Israel in 752 B.C.
752 B.C.
Menahem became the king of Israel in 752 B.C.
752: Amos had also been overwhelmed by a sudden imperative that had swept him to the kingdom of Israel in the north. He had burst into the ancient shrine of Beth-El and shattered the ceremonial there with a prophecy of doom. Amaziah, the priest of Beth El had tried to send him away.
c. 750 B.C.
Expanding from the Crimean Peninsula through the Caucasus southward into Asia Minor, the Cimmerians threatened the Assyrian Empire. Allied with the Assyrians they destroyed the kingdom of Urartu. However, they were subsequently pushed westward and moved through Asia Minor, defeating the Phrygian kingdom and king Gyges of Lydia (killed defending his land). .
Subsequintly some of the priests migrated to Nubia, where their successors founded a theocratic state with its capitalo at Napata.
750 B.C.
Jotham began to coreign as king of Judah with his father, Azariah, in 750 B.C.
750 B.C.: The kingdoms of Israel and Judah enjoy an epoch of military security and exonomic prosperity. The arrogance, corruption, and disparities between rich and poor that ensue prompt condemnation from the prophets Hosea, Amos, and, a generation later, Isaiah ben Amos.
750 BCE: Amos begins to prophesy to Israel.[1]
• “Then the Lord said to me,
• The end has come upon my people Israel;
• I will never again pass them by…
• The dead bodies shall be many,
• cast out in every place. Be silent!
• Amos 8:1-3
Amos promises rebirth: I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land which I have given them.
• Amos 9:14-15
750
750-735 B.C.: Jotham, King of Southern Israel.
750-715: Hosea, major prophet of Northern Israel.
748 B.C.: After Jeroboam II dies, the throne of Israel is overturned several times in rapid succession.
747-737 B.C.: Menahem, King of Northern Israel.
747 to 656 BC
747 to 656 BC.
746-736 BCE: The northern Kingdom of Israel was in a state of near-anarchy: after the death of King Jeroboam II, five kings had sat on the throne between 746-736, while King Tigleth Pilesar III, King of Assyria, looked hungrily at their lands which he was anxious to add to his expanding empire.
745 to 727 BCE: The firstr Assyrian ruler to make a significant appearance on the eastern shores of the Mediterreaning was Tiglath-pileser III (745-727), who marked thed beginning of ta new era in Assyrian history, launching several campaigns against the empire’s western neighbors. In the wake of these early Assyrian forays, Israel, a relatively prosperous kingdom in the northern part of Palestine, entered a long turbulent period.
744–727 B.C: Tiglath-pileser III Neo Assyrian King.
From the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III and from some representations on the reliefs that decorated the walls of his palace at Nimrud, we learn that he too conducted a military campaign to the west and invaded Israel. Tiglath-pileser III received tribute from Menahem of Samaria (744–738 B.C.), as the Bible tells us; the Assyrian king is there called Pulu ( 2 Kings 15:19–20 ).
In the eighth century B.C., Tiglath-pileser III held center stage. Of one city he conquered, he says:
“Nabû-ushabshi, their king, I hung up in front of the gate of his city on a stake. His land, his wife, his sons, his daughters, his property, the treasure of his palace, I carried off. Bit-Amukâni I trampled down like a threshing (sledge). All of its people, (and) its goods, I took to Assyria.” †
Such actions are illustrated several times in the reliefs at Tiglath-pileser’s palace at Nimrud. These reliefs display an individual style in the execution of details that is of special importance in tracing the development of military techniques.
743 BCE: King Ussiah (or Azariah) of Judah leads a group of local armies against the advance of Tiglath-Pileser III in northern Syria.
Ahaz takes the throne of Judah to replace his father Jotham, who dies as regent of his father King Uzziah.
In 742 BCE, a member of the Judean royal family had a vision of Yahweh in the Temple which King Solomon had built in Jerusalem. It was an anxious time for the people of Israel. King Uzziah of Judah had died that year and was succeeded by his son Ahaz, who would encourage his subjects to worship pagan gods alongside Yahweh.
740 B.C.: Jotham began to reign as the sole king of Judah in 740 B.C. 2 Kings 15:32-38.
740 B.C.: Isaiah was called to his prophetic ministry the same year that Uzziah died (740 B.C.). Isaiah 6: 1-13. Isaiah receives his vocation in the Temple. He begins to prophesy. [1]
Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity. Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Isaiah 1:4, 1:7.
740-681 B.C.: Isaiah, major prophet of Southern Israel.
738 BCE: Tiglath-Pileser III exacts tribute from Menaham ben Gadi of Isrel (747-737) BCE) and other local rulers. Menahem has little choice but to submit to Assyrian domination.
737-735 B.C.: Pekahiah, King of Northern Israel.
In another episode recorded in the Bible, Pekah, king of Israel (737–732 B.C.), joined forces with Rezin of Damascus against King Ahaz of Judah ( 2 Kings 16:5–10 ). The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III successfully intervened against Pekah, who was then deposed. The Assyrian king then placed Hoshea on the Israelite throne. By then Israel’s northern provinces were devastated and part of her population was deported to Assyria ( 2 Kings 15:29 ).
735 BCE: The prophet Isaiah warns King Ahaz not to appeal to Tiglath-Pileser III for aid against the Arameanb-Israelite onslaught, urging him to trust instead in YHWH. He foresees an era of international peace in which Jerusalem with its Temple will serve as spiritual center. It is known from Assyrian sources that Ahaz pays tribute to the Assyrian king during his campaign against Philistia.
735 BCE: Pekahiah, son of Menahem, king of Israel, is assassinated by an army officer, Pekah ben Remaliah, who overtakes the throne, hoping through alliance with Rezin, the Aramean king of Damascus, to free Israel from Assyria.
735 BCE: The prophet Hosea blames political disorder within northern Israel on religiocultural decay. He foresees the destruction of Israel by Assyria as severe divine punishment. Hosea articulates the covenant relation between YHWH and the people Israel as a marriage in which YHWH expects fidelity in the form of exclusive worship.
735-733 B.C.: Peka, King of Northern Israel.
Pekah (735-732) of Israel and Rezin of Damascus invite King Ahaz of Judah to join them against Assyria. When Ahaz, fearful of Assyrian reprisal, refuses, Pekah and Rezin attack Judah. His kingdom at stake, Ahaz requests intervention from Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria.
735-700 BCE: Prophet Micah is concerned about Idol worship and its consequences in southern Kingdom of Juda. Micah preaches and prophesizes in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, the home of Solomon’s Temple. Micah criticizes the temple system with its Priests and payment structure and foretells it’s ultimate destruction.
“Therefore, because of you,
Zion will plowed like a field .
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”
Micah 3:11-12
734 B.C.
During Ahaz’s reign as king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and king Pekah of Israel tried to persuade Ahaz to join an alliance against Assyria. Ahaz refused to join their alliance, so Rezin and Pekah used force to try to change his mind.
But that didn’t work and war broke between Judah on the one side, and Aram and Israel on the other. This was known as the Syro-Ephraimite war and took place in 734 B.C.
734 B.C.
Hosea’s reference to Ephraim “turning to Assyria” in 7:11 may date these prophecies to the end of the Syro-Ephraimite war (734 B.C. ) This reference may indicate Ephraim’s surrender to Assyria, who was called on to help Judah fight against Aram and Ephraim (Israel). Hosea 5: 8-7:16
734-733 BCE: The worst fears of Israel began to come true. The Assyrian military juggernaut rolled southward from Damascus in 734 to 733 BCE, ultimately vanquishing the northern kingdom over the next decade.
733 BCE: As Isaiah prayed in the Temple shortly after King Uzziah’s death (733), he was probably full of foreboding; at the same time he may have been uncomfortably aware of the inappropriateness of the lavish Temple ceremonial. Isaiah may have been a member of the ruling class, but he had populist and democratic views and was highly sensitive to the plight of the poor. As the incense filled the sanctuary before the Holy of Holies and the place reeked with the blood of the sacrificial animals, he may have feared that the religion of Israel had lost its integrity and inner meaning.
733 BCE: Tiglath-Pileser III invades Israel, gradually overrunning the country from the Mediterranean to the Transjordan. Israel’s new king.
733 BCE: Hosea ben Elah (732-724), who murdered his predecessor Pekah, submits and renders tribute to the Assyrian overlord.
•
• Human headed winged bulls and heroic figures adourned the entrances to the throne rooms of the assyrian king Sargon II in his capital city of Dur-Sharrukin, modern day Khorsabad.
• Sherri Maxson arranged for our visit to the Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago. It is located at 1155 E 58th street, Chicago.
The king of Assyria (Sargon II) deported the Israelites to what is today modern Syria and Iraq. In the biblical version of history, written by the surviving Judeans in the south, God let this happen because of the widespread sacrilege and idol worship in the north.
“The Lord was incensed at Israel and He banished them from His presence,” reads 2 Kings 17:18; “none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.”
The Bible claims that as many as 120,000 Israelites were taken away. The Assyrians imported colonists to this reconstituted territory, which became known as Samaria.
The Bible says that the peasants left in Samaria mixed with immigrants imported by the Assyrians to form the nucleus of a new mixed population. The Bible calls this amalgam the Samaritans, the name derived from samerim, which means “keeper of the law.”.
According to the Bible, these Samaritans were no longer the pure descendants of the Hebrews, but forsaken by God because of their sins. With the Judeans rewriting history, the ten tribes of the north thereafter vanish from the pages of the Bible.
• Late eighth century
“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,” saith your God.
“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is aqccomplished and her iniquity is pardoned.”…
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill laid low, the crooked straight and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
Drop down dew, ye heavens from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One. Let the earth open and the Savior blossom forth.
Anonymous prophet, known to scholars as Deutero-Isaiah (or the Second Isaiah) whose prophecies are collected in the third Book of Isaiah. From the late eighth century before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.
Perhaps realizing what defeat meant, a king of Urartu, threatened by Sargon II, committed suicide: “The splendor of Assur, my lord, overwhelmed him [the king of Urartu] and with his own iron dagger he stabbed himself through the heart, like a pig, and ended his life.” †
Sargon II started a new Assyrian dynasty that lasted to the end of the empire. Sargon built a new capital named after himself—Dur Sharrukin, meaning “Stronghold of the righteous king.” His palace walls were decorated with especially large stone slabs, carved with extraordinarily large figures.
733-732 B.C.E. In the wake of his 733-732 Campaign, which destroyed the kingdom of Aram Damscus (house of Haza’el) and annexed parts of Israel, Tiglath-pileser III wrote, “I carried off [to] Assyria the land of Bit Humria [Israel]…[its] auxiliary [army]…all its people, [I killed] Pekah, their king, and I installed Hoshea [as king] over them. I received from them 10 talents of gold, X talents of silver, [with their property ] and [I carried them [to Assyria]. Israel barley survived these attacks and saw its rival northern neighbor and onetime ally in the wars against the Assyrians, Aram Damascus, annexed and entirely swallowed up by the empire.
733-727 B.C.: Ahaz, King of Southern Israel.
733-724 B.C.: Hoshea, King of Northern Israel.
732 B.C.
Hoshea became king of Israel in 732 B.C. 2 Kings 15:30-31
732 B.C.
Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind. This portion of Hosea’s prophecies contains a reference to Ephraim (Isrel) going up to Assyria (8:9). The reference may concern King Hosheas appeal to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, to cease his conquest of Israel. Thus these prophecies may be dated shortly after Hoshea became king of Israel in 732 B.C. Hosea 8:1-9+:17
732 B.C.
Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind. This portion of Hose’s prophecies contains a reference to Ephraim (Israel) going up to Assyria (8:9). The reference may concern King Hoshea’s appeal to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, to cease his conquest of Israel. Thus these prophesies may be dated shortly after Hoshea became king of Israel in 732 B.C.
730 BCE: Assimilating to Assyrian culture, King Ahaz introduces certain pagan ritual practices in Judah and the Jerusalem temple. He depletes the royal treasury making tribute payments to Assyria.
728 B.C.: Hezekiah may have coreigned with his father, Ahaz, from 728 to 715 B.C. He became the sole king of Judah when Ahaz died in 715 B.C. 2 kings 18:1-2.
727 B.C.E.: Despite his foolish and near disastrous misreading of world political conditions, the Judahite king Hezekia (r. 727-698) does evberything right. He listens to Isaiah, God’s prophet, and the people of Judah all repent and live to see, only two decades after the punishment of their northern brothers, the “angel of God” strike all Assyrian soldiers dead within one night. The Judahitesare saved, for the time being at least, and will not go into exile. The Israelites on the other hand, failed to heed all warnings and are now gone.
727-698 B.C.: Hezekiah, King of Southern Israel.
726 BCE: Hosea, king of Israel, banking on support from Egypt, rebels against Assyria by withholding tribute from its new king, Shalmaneser V.
724: It was the first act of conquest after the initial and divinely guided conquests of Joshua, when the Israelites returned from Egypt. Dan was one of the first tribes to be exiled by the Assyrians; its territories were conquered bgy Tiglath-pileser, well before Sargon, during the invasion of 724 BCE. The The judge Samson, a Herculean persona whose career was based on amazing physical strength and a mysterious relationship with the divine, was a Danite. He once wrestled and killed a lion with his bare hands nad anjoyed the honey produced by bees that had settled in its carcass; he tormented the Philistines, his mortal enemies, with riddles about it. An unusually colorful judge, who always fought Israel’s wars alone as an individual, Samson’s wars with the Philistines combined the use of physical power, a great degree of intelligence, and a sense of humor. The book of Judges tells us that he once killed a thousand Philistines using a donkey’s jawbone.
724 BCE: Shalmaneser V invades Israel, taking control of the entire north except for the capital, Samaria.
In 722 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the northern half of Israel, which had fissioned many years before as a result of internal conflicts. In keeping with Assyrian military practices, the conquerors scattered the northern kingdoms upperclasses throughout the Middle East and imported colonists from the Babylonia and Syria to take their places.[1] When the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the Middle East; these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly from the pages of history.[2] The ten northern tribes are lost. [3] Isaiah would live to see the destruction of the northern kingdom in 722. [4]
Over 2,700 years ago, the Assyrians exiled the ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and he carried them away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Medes.
722 B.C.
The “final sentence” tone of Hosea’s prophecies in chapter 13 indicates that he may have delivered them to the Israelites on the eve of their destruction in 722 B.C. In chapter 14, Hosea gives the Irawelites hope for restoration through repentance, perhaps as a reminder of how to return to God and be restored. Hosea 13:1-14:9.
722 B.C.
Micah’s opening prophecies contain a vision he had of ‘God’s judgement being carried out against Israel. Like Hosea, Micah may have spoken these words just before Israel was captured by Assyria in 722 B.C.. Micah 1:1-7.
722 B.C.
In 722 B.C., Shalmaneser, king of Assyuria, attacked and captured Israel. 2 Kings 17:3-23.
At one point, Israel, already but a shadow of its former self and crushed by the burden of the annual tribute to Assyria, decided to revolt. Shalmaneser V (726–722 B.C.), who reigned after Tiglath-pileser III, marched into Israel, besieged its capital at Samaria and, after three years of fighting, destroyed it ( 2 Kings 18:10 ). This probably occurred in the last year of Shalmaneser V’s reign (722 B.C.). However, his successor, Sargon II, later claimed credit for the victory. In any event, this defeat ended the national identity of the northern kingdom of Israel. Sargon II deported, according to his own records, 27,290 Israelites, settling them, according to the Bible, near Harran on the Habur River and in the mountains of eastern Assyria ( 2 Kings 17:6 , 18:11 ).
In 722 B.C. the Assyrians conquered the northern half of Israel, which had fissioned many years before as a result of internal conflicts. In keeping with Assyrian military practices, the conquerors scattered the northern kingdoms upperclasses throughout the Middle East and imported colonists from the Babylonia and Syria to take their places. When the Assyrians conquered Israel in 722, the Hebrew inhabitants were scattered all over the Middle East; these early victims of the dispersion disappeared utterly from the pages of history. The elite ruling class of the Northern Kingodm was deported to different parts of the Assyrian Empire and summarily replaced by a new set of exiles imported by the Assyrians. The Assyrians may have been the first to systematize ethnic cleansing, and they went about it with staggering efficiency. When cities and even kingdoms were cleansed of their leading citizens by the Assyrians, they simply disappeared from history. Had the Assyrians done the same to Judah at this time, it is doubtful that we would know much of anything about the ancient Hebrews.
722 B.C.E.: The Lemba, a relatively small group of Bantu speaking Africans living in South Africa and Zimbabwe who claim to have fled Judea three thousand years ago. Who are these people and how did they come to view themselves as descended from ancientJews? To set the stage for the Lemba and their claims of Jewish ness, let us first have a quick look at Bantu history,
Africa is to the study of human genetic diversity what the rain forest is to ecology. It is by far the most diverse and varied place on earth and also among the least well studied. Its many stories of human innovation and migration, of settlement and urbanization, remain all but untold. One dramatic ep[isode in African prehistory that has been recovered to Westerners, thanks largely to the work of ninetheenth century linguists, is the stunning march of Bantu culture, language, and people across much of the African continent over the past four to five thousand years. The Bantu legacy extends from modern Nigeria and Cameroon in West Africa to the nation of South Africa encompassing more than 200 million speakers of a Bantu or related language, amounting to nearly one in every three Africans.
The linguistic and cultural heritage of this remarkable dispersal traces to a small expanse of savannah in what is now the border region of the modern states of Cameroon and Nigeria. There, between 3,000 and 2,000 B.C.E., a group of people speaking in early Bantu language developed distinctive and, the time, progressive agricultural technologies that included cattle herding and farming of witner rain cropos su ch as African yams. These developments allowed the Bantu speakers to expand eastward, either directly through the rain forest of perhaps around ints northern boundary. Some where in central Africa they split on one grouip pushing farther south and another eastward, The eastern Bantu continued on to the Great Lakes region of Africa, an area thqat inc lueds the whole of modern Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. There they found a thriving center of agricultural development. Arountd the time of the second Temple, the Bantu speakers learned from the east African farmers how to work metal. The combination of witner rain crop farming and metal work gave the Bantu speakers an overwhelming economic advantage in the tropical climates south of the Great Lakes. Consepuently, the eastern Bantu speakers were able to sweep through Africa in one of the most rapid expansions in hunman history. By the time the British expanded their presence in Sout5h Africa in in the eighteenth century, it was Bantu speaking Zulu warriors who che checked their advance.
Part of the cultural legacy of the Bantu speakers is the Lemba tribe of southern Africa. The approximately seventy thousand Lemba are spread through various parts of southern Africa, especially South Africa and Zimbabwe. By their own account, they arrived in wouthern Africa from Judea, “white men who came from Sena in the north by boat,” half of them being lost at sea along the way. The Lemba regard the reference in the book of Nehemia to the children of Sena’ah’s returning from the Babylonian exile as a direct nod to their ancestors. Lemba oral tradition is not very clear about Sena’s location: sometimes it is in Judea, sometives in Yemen or Ethiopia. The discrepancy may be explained by there being more than one Sena in their history: they speak of having rebuilt Sena after reaching Africa. “We are from Sena,” Matshaya Mathiva, a Lemba scholar from South Africa, told Tudor Parfitt in the 1980s, “but we do not know where it is. We have lost the printo of our foot on the earth.”
Wherever that footprint might ultimately be found, one feature is clear. The Lemba consider themselves to be of Jewish descent, even though many today belong to Christian churches and others practice a brand of Islam. As Parfitt recounts in Journey to the Vanished City, the nearly universal refrain among the Lemba is some variation of “We are Jews, we came from Sena and crossed Pusela.” (Pusela, like Sena, is a mysterious word; it is thought by many to mean the sea.)
There do appear to be circumstantial connections between the Lemba and Judaism:’
The Lemba are monotheistic- they do not practice idol worship. They claim that their God, Mwali, is the same as the God of the Israelites. Other African tribges also worship Mwali; the Lemba claim that they introduced the practice. ‘
Like Jews throughout much of history, the Lemba have resited assimilation. They are endogamous, they do not take non-Lemba wasenzhi (“gentile”) spouses. They keep to themselves and are secretive: Matshaya Mathiva compares them to the Freemasons.
The Lemba practice circumcision. Indeed, a number of historical accounts suggest that the Lemba were the ones who introduced circumcision to sub-Saharan Africa.
The Lemba are buried horizontally while most other African tribes bury their dead in a sitting position.
The Lemba continue to practice animal sacrifice, complete with special knives and accompanied by prayers of thanks.
Just as the Jewish calendar commemorates the new moon (Rosh Chodesh-“head of the month” in Hebrew), the Lemba make a point of knowing the precise details of the lunar cycle.
The Lemba observe strict dietary laws somewhat akin to Jewish kashrut. Most notably, they do not mix milk and meat, nor do they eat pork.
Of course, none of these can be considered “diagnostic” of Judaism. Taken in the aggregate, however, they at least suggest a Semitic connection, if not an obiously Jewish one.
The Lemba claim to come from a place called Sena, somewhere north of their current African home. But until Tudor Parfitt under took the role of anthropological sleuth in the 1980s and 1990s, no one knew exactly where Sena was. Some of the Lemba Parfitt spoke to used the term Sena in a more metaphorical sense, as a reference to heaven or the afterlife.
In concrete terms, Lemba tradition states that some twenty five hundred years ago a group of Jews left Judea and, under the leadership of the Buba clan (one of the subclans the tribe was divided into), settled somewhere in the Middle East and built the city of Sena (“Sena One”). Conditions eventually became unfavorable, and the group left by boat. After landing on the African coast, the tribe split into two, with one faction settling in Ethiopia and another migratin farther south along the eastyern coast of Africa. There, the second group is said to have rebuilt Sena (“Sena Two”) somewhere in what is now Tanzania or Kenyua. Another group then splintered from the tribe and built Sena Three in Mozambique. From there, it ostensibly went to Zimbabwe and participated in the construction of Great Zimbabwe, a stone city thought to have been buiolt over the period extending from 400 C.E. to 1500 E.C. and covering nearly eighteen hundred acres, it is Africa’s largest and most famous ruin. At some point, Lemba tradition goes, the Lemba people broke God’s law by eating mice (definitely not kosher) and were banished rfrom Great Zimbabwe and dispersed throughout southern Africa.
The difference between the Lemba and those other ttribes is that Lemba oral tradition posed a question that is readily amenable to genetic analysis because of the way tribal membership was (and is) regulated. Lemba traditions allowed a non-Lemba woman to join the community upon marriage to a Lemba man, but only after grtueling initiation ceremonies. Thus, non-Lemba DNA could enter the community onely through females. In this way, Lemba practice inverts the typical Diasporan Jewish situation in which the mother determines ethnicity.
The Lemba offered an ideal situation for study bya genetics research group. The Y chromosome passes exclusively down the male line The Lemba claim that, historically, conversion has not been open to non-Lemba men, implying strict patrilineal descent of “Lembaness.” If there is substance to the oral history, then Lemba Y chromosomes should liik like the Y chromosomes of Jewish communities and not like the Y chromosomes of the Lemba’s black African neighbors.
The study on the Cohanim made use of a number of higher resolution genetic markers and identified a chromosomal type that were thought to ba a signature of the ancient Israelites. The Cohen Modal Haplotype, or CMH, is present in about half of the Cohanim tested and carried by more than one in ten Ashkenazi, Iraqi, and Yemeni Jews. With only one exception known so far (an Ethiopian population), this haplotype has not been found as such high frequencies in any non Jewish group.
The real shocker came when nearly one in ten of the Lemba Y chromosomes turned out to be none other than the CMH. Not only did we have evidence for a Semitic origin, we had an indication of a specifically Jewish connection.
And there was more to come. The Lemba hjave many different clans, and although Semitic Y chromosomes were spread throughout the clans, the vast majority of the CMH chromosoemes observed were present in lynyt one, the Buba. Moreover, the CMH was found at high frequencies (over 50 percent) in Buba from distinct geographic areas. This was significant because of the Buba’s unique role in Lemba oral tradition. Among Parfitt’s papers was a carbon record of a funeral oration given by a tribal elder sometime before we started our research. It read in part, “The Lemba left Judea under the Leadershjip of Buba and settled in Yemen, where they built their city of Sena.” This record complemented a 1992 account by Matshaya Mathiva: “The Buba lineage came down from Judea as the leading lineage of the Basena (“people of Sena”), when they left Judea in their early migration to Yemen, where they settled and built the city of Sena.”
722 B.C.E.: In the study of the Lemba: the notion of descednt from the Lost Tribes also includes the Bene Israel and Bnei Menashe of India, the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, the Ebraeli of Georgia, and the Bukharan Jews as well as many others all cherich the idea that they can trace their lineage back to the Assyrian Exiole of 722 B.C.E. or thereabouts.
In the years 722-721 BC (over 2700 years ago), the ten tribes who comprised the northern Kingdom of Israel disappeared. Conquered by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser VB, they were exiled to upper Mesopotamia and Medes, today modern Syria and Iraq. The Ten tribes of Israel have never been seen since. Or have they?
“The first striking thing about the Y chromosomes of the Lemba is that you find this particular chromosomal type (Cohen modal haplotype) that is characteristic of the Jewish priesthood in a frequency that is similar to what you see in major Jewish populations. Something just under one out of every 10 lemba that we looked at had this particular Y chromosomal type that appears to be a signature of Jewish ancestry. Perhaps a particular clan in the Lemba. Most of the Cohen modal haplotypes that we observe are carried by individuals of the Buba clan which, in Lemba oral tradition, had a leadership role in bringing the Lemba out of Israel.
The Buba sub-clan, seem to have an ancestral connection to Judaic populations. Like an oral history, but written in the letters of the DNA, the Lemba Y chromosome hands from father to son a living record of the past.
722 BCE: The deported Israelites-the so-called 10 lost tribes, assimilate into their new localities. The Ten Tribes are believed to include Judah, Ephraim, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Gad, Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh.
Of particular interest is the Buba clan, since membership of this clan and possession of the CMH are significantly associtated. Seven of the 11 clan-designated Lemba CMH Y chromosomes came from members of this clan, whereas 7 (Northern province; Nx Zskhukuneland, 3/9) of the 13 Buba have the CMH. Raulinga Hamisi, a Lemba elder, in a speech at the burial of Maanda William of Mawela Ratshilingana Mhani, in July 1996 (before the current research was undertaken), said “the Senas left Judea under the leadership of Buba and settled in Yeman where they built their city of Sena, hence Senas,” reflecting the belief of at least one elder that Buba led the Lemba out of Judea. In a book published privately in `1992, another Lemba elder wrote that “the Bhuba lineage came down from Judea as the leading lineage of the Basena when they left Judea in their early migration to the Yemen where they settled and built the city of Sena. They ruled over all the lineages in good manner” Mathivha 1992, p. 23)
African Lemba Tribe
722-721 B.C…African Lemba Tribe
African Lemba Tribe
The Lemba are a tribe of about 50,000 people living in South Africa and Zimbabwe who practice a religion that is strikingly similar to that of the Jews during Biblical times. Molecular genetics have provided the technology to compare genetic material of the Lemba people with that of modern Jewish people. The results show that the Lemba share several genetic characteristics with Jews including a particular marker on the Y-chromosome called the Cohen Modal Haplotype.
The Hebrew Bible tells the story of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, who had 12 sons. Each of these sons became the leader of a tribe, collectively known as the twelve tribes of Israel. Historians date the origin of the twelve tribes to about 2,700 years ago. Over time, the twelve tribes became divided politically and geographically. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin lived in the southern part of Israel, while the other ten lived in the north. During the years 72221 B.C.E, the Assyrians conquered Israel and exiled the ten northern tribes. Historians agree that the ten tribes were likely scattered and assimilated into local cultures to the east. Many groups from locations as disparate as Japan, China, India, and Ethiopia have claimed to be ancestors of the lost tribes, however the actual fate of these people is largely a mystery.
The Lemba of South Africa follow religious traditions that share many similarities with that of the Jews. They practice circumcision and ritual slaughter, scorn intermarriage, and have many similar food taboos, such as not eating meat from pigs. They follow a lunar calendar and celebrate holidays timed with the phases of the moon. Though they speak Bantu, their traditions vary greatly from that of other Bantu people. In addition, their oral tradition states that they came from the Middle East: "We came from the north, from a place called Senna. We left Senna, we crossed Pusela, we came to Africa and there we rebuilt Senna." Although many different lines of evidence point to a connection between the Lemba and the Jews, validating the relationship was never possible until the development of genetic testing.
The modern Jews are traditionally divided into three groups, essentially based on the oral traditions of their families. The Cohanim are thought to be descended from Moses' brother Aaron, who was the high priest of the Hebrew temple. Because Jewish tradition follows a paternal line of inheritance, all modern Cohanim share a paternally inherited priestly ancestor. The other groups are the Leviim, descended from the ancient tribe of Levi, and the Israelites, all non-Cohen and non-Levite Jews. In 1997, genetic researchers found that there is a specific marker on the Y-chromosome, which paternally passes through the genome, called the Cohen Modal Haplotype. This set of genetic markers is found in nearly 50% of all Jewish men who identify themselves as Cohanim. It is found with nearly the same frequency in both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic Cohanim, even though these two major groups of Jews have been geographically separated for hundreds of years. The Cohen Modal Haplotype is only found in about 10% of the Levites and Israelites. It is nearly non-existent in non-Jewish populations.
In 1999 genetic data on the Lemba was collected by Tudor Parfitt, director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He and his collaborators took genetic samples from men of six Lemba clans whose geographic range was from South Africa to Zimbabwe. Of these six clans, the Buba are notable as being the priestly clan. The genetic material was analyzed for the genetic markers that have been found in the Jews. Similar to the general Jewish population, the Cohen Modal Haplotype was found in nearly 10% of all Lemba men. In addition, the Cohen Modal Haplotype was found in nearly half of the men in the Buba tribe.
Additional research by Parfitt identified a location in the Hadramaut region of Yemen as the Senna of the Lemba's oral history. In the past, Jewish communities thrived in Yemen. Parfitt found a town called Sena, which had been a vibrant community but had been almost completely abandoned nearly 1,000 years ago. The Lemba oral history stated that Senna was an extremely fertile place and that was irrigated as the result of a great dam. Parfitt found the remains of a dam in Sena and documented the rich history of the town. In addition, a valley called Wadi-al-Masila leads from Sena to a port city called Sayhut. Parfitt asserts that the Pusela of the Lemba oral tradition is the Masila valley near Sena. Under the right meteorological conditions, the winds could take a boat from Sayhut to South Africa in just over a week. Finally, the family names of the Lemba sound strikingly similar to names from the Hadramaut area.
While the Lemba cannot yet prove that they are one of the ten lost tribes of Israel, the scientific and ethnographic evidence shows that the Lemba of South Africa share a common ancestor with the Jewish people, and more specifically with an ancient priest. This has important implications, both historical and legal. Israeli law upholds the "right of return" that guarantees citizenship for any Jew. Jewish law, however, establishes Jewish identity maternally. Given that the Lemba have established their genetic heritage paternally, and that they practice a form of Judaism that is quite different from that practiced in Israel, there may still be controversy over the status of the Lemba in Israeli courts.
The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, discovered in 1867. Some scholars claim that the modern Zimbabwean Lemba tribe shares key genetic and cultural characteristics with descendents of an ancient Jewish people, and could be the creators of ancient Zimbabwe. © MARTIN HARVEY; GALLO IMAGES/CORBIS.
SEE ALSO DNA fingerprint; DNA sequences, unique; Genetic code; Y chromosome analysis.
Source: World of Forensic Science, ©2006 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
"LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL"
PBS Airdate: February 22, 2000
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NARRATOR: The Western Wall in Jerusalem. Devout Jews come to worship much as their ancestors did centuries ago. The time-honored traditions live on - the wearing of prayer shawls and head coverings, the wail of the shofar made of ram's horn. 4,000 miles from Israel, in southern Africa, a people known as the Lemba also heed the call of the shofar. They have believed for generations that they are Jews, direct descendants of the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However unlikely the Lemba's claims may seem, modern science is finding a way to test them. The ever-growing understanding of human genetics is revealing connections between peoples that have never been seen before. Opening new windows into the past. Tonight we travel across continents and seas - and into the microscopic world of the human genome - to unravel the mysteries of the Lemba, a people who believe themselves to be a lost tribe of Israel.
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NARRATOR: On a hot summer afternoon in South Africa, anthropologist Tudor Parfitt takes the next step in his quest to solve the riddle of the Lemba - a quest that had begun a dozen years earlier following a lecture he'd given in Johannesburg.
TUDOR PARFITT: You're called the Black Jews. Do you really think you are Black Jews?
ELDER: I believe that I'm a black Jew. Because we don't eat pork and the Jews also doesn't eat pork. There was distant marriages - we didn't have intermarriage to marry a different nationality. It must be of a Lemba tribe. And whenever we slaughter, we wash our hands and we clean up our utensils, that's what the Jews do. They do everything, whatever they do - doing kosher food, and that means everything is clean.
PROFESSOR MATHIVA: You are the great descendants of the great ancestor Abraham, the origin where your forefathers come from. From Abraham, you came up through Isaac, one of our ancestors, the son and the rightful heir of Abraham estate.
NARRATOR: The Lemba believe they descend from the ancient tribes that lived in the land of Israel 3,000 years ago. According to the Bible, the tribes were united and powerful under King David and King Solomon. But when Solomon died around 900 BC, the confederation of tribes weakened.
SHAYE COHEN: According to the biblical record, after the death of Solomon, the kingdom split into two. There was a rebellion and the Davidic line became the kings only of the southern kingdom in Jerusalem. And the northern kingdom was established by rebels against the Davidic line, who established a monarchy which lasted until the year 722 BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians. The northern tribes were then carried off into exile to points further east and at that point the mystery of the lost tribes begins, because we don't know what happened to them.
NARRATOR: Most scholars agree that the 10 lost tribes were scattered across the Middle East, and assimilated into local populations. But throughout history, people from as far as Japan, India, and Ethiopia have been thought by some to be descendants of those long lost tribes.
SHAYE COHEN: It seems to me the simplest way to understand these claims is that Westerners come across long lost peoples, native peoples in far-flung places across the globe, and they see them, and they try to interpret them in terms with which they are familiar, and their terms are familiar from the Hebrew Bible.
For example, if an explorer or a missionary finds that a native people eat some kind of unleavened bread in the springtime or circumcise their sons, for example, or they don't eat pork, for example, or they don't do work on a given day of the week, they will automatically interpret that in terms of the Hebrew Bible.
PROFESSOR MATHIVA: And you were told in those laws that God forbids you to eat pork, which is the meat coming from a pig.
TUDOR PARFITT: I must say I didn't really believe this - this whole Jewish thing. I didn't believe that a group of Jews had left the Middle East, you know, centuries before and come to the middle of black Africa. That didn't seem likely. There seemed far better explanations of - of the fact that they thought they were Jewish than this. One is that somehow their Jewish identity had been imposed from the outside by missionaries for whom nothing is sweeter than the idea of discovering lost tribes somewhere that you can work on. But on the other hand, there was something Semitic about them. They circumcise; there's a whole range of animals that they will not eat, including anything which is even remotely pig-like. The other thing was the extraordinary importance they placed upon ritual slaughter of animals. Ritual slaughter of animals is not an African thing at all. Of course it's Islamic as well as Judaic, but it's certainly from the Middle East, it's not African. And the fact that every lad is given a knife with which he did his ritual slaughtering throughout his life, and he took to his grave with him, that seemed to me to be very remarkably, tangibly Semitic and Middle Eastern.
NARRATOR: Until recently, there has been no way to test the Lemba's belief in a Jewish heritage. But now a new key has been discovered that may unlock ancient mysteries: a key as basic as blood and bone, and infallible as a fingerprint - genetic markers that may confirm an age-old Jewish belief.
The Hebrew Bible says that Aaron, the brother of Moses, was chosen by God to begin a family line of priests to serve in the temple. Priest in Hebrew is "Cohane," plural "Cohanim." And to this day, a small percentage of Jews identify themselves as Cohanim - and believe that they are descended from Aaron.
SHAYE COHEN: According to the Bible, God selected the tribe of Levi to be the priestly tribe. And this tribe in turn was - was split into two. One line from Aaron provided the priests, another line through Moses provided the Levites who would serve as assistants in the central sanctuary. The crucial point is that the priestly line is tribal in the sense that it is transmitted from father to son. I, for example, am a priest. My last name is Cohen, or Cohane in Hebrew, and I am a Cohane because my father said that I am. His name was Cohen, or Cohane, and he said that I and my brother, we are Cohanim. One cannot join the priestly line, one cannot be appointed to the priestly line. You don't take an exam to be accepted into the priestly line. You don't have to pass qualifications to be in the priestly line. The only thing that matters is your heredity.
NARRATOR: Another Cohane, Professor Karl Skorecki, and his colleague Neil Bradman each had the idea that Cohanim inheritance might be able to be confirmed genetically.
KARL SKORECKI: One day sitting in synagogue, my mind was drifting perhaps from some of the liturgy and prayers, and during the synagogue ceremony, members of the priest tribe or Cohanim are called up for particular contributions to the service. So I was sitting there, and another member of the congregation was called up as a Cohane, or Jewish priest, and his origin was from North Africa. And my origin in terms of where my parents came from is from eastern Europe and Poland, and we are both Cohanim, or priests. So I thought to myself at the time, well what might we have in common other than the fact - other than this tradition that we have? So this led to the notion that perhaps we could find, somewhere in the human genome, a similarity. Well, the part of the human genome that's also passed from father to son is of course the Y chromosome.
NARRATOR: Inside every human cell are 23 pairs of chromosomes, made up of DNA. One half of each pair comes from the mother, the other half from the father. One of those pairs determines a person's sex. Women generally have a pair of similar chromosomes called XX, men have XY. If the father contributes his X to the offspring, it will be a girl. If he contributes his Y, it'll be a boy. It's the Y chromosome that determines maleness. And the Y doesn't exchange much genetic material with its partner X, so a father passes his Y chromosome on to his son virtually unchanged.
DAVID GOLDSTEIN: To understand why we can use the Y chromosome to test the oral tradition surrounding the priesthood, let's imagine for a minute that the oral tradition is largely accurate. So what that means is that at some point in the past, there was a priest that founded the priestly line. This individual had a number of sons and his sons had sons and so on, and the priests of today are all the descendants just through the - the paternal line of that original founding priest. If that's in fact the case, or something very much like that is the case, then all the individuals today that consider - consider themselves Cohanim, in fact have copies in some sense of the Y chromosome that was carried by that original founding priest.
NARRATOR: To test this hypothesis, researchers went to a beach in Israel to collect DNA from dozens of young Jewish men.
NEIL BRADMAN: We obtained the DNA by taking a mouth swab - little cotton bud around the inside of the mouth. Then the cells are broken down and the DNA is extracted back in the lab. We take this DNA from individuals who are self-identifying Jews, in other words, they say that they're Jews, and they say that so far as they believe they are either a priest, a Cohen, or they are not a priest, a lay Jew.
NARRATOR: The samples are analyzed at University College London. Liquid from test tubes containing the mouth swabs is treated with enzymes and spun in a centrifuge to separate out the DNA. The amount of DNA obtained from each person is so minute that in order to be analyzed, it must first be "amplified" - reproduced millions of times using a process called polymerase chain reaction - PCR. During PCR, the DNA is heated until its double strand splits into two single strands. Then the temperature is lowered and each single strand makes a new partner using chemicals that have been added to the liquid. The machine heats up again until these new double strands split apart. This process continues for a few hours - a chain reaction, doubling the available DNA with every cycle.
Meanwhile, a researcher prepares a special gel to receive the amplified DNA. A liquid is carefully injected between two sheets of glass and spreads out to form a thin membrane. Once the gel is set, it is mounted vertically so the DNA - which has an electrical charge - can migrate down through it when a current is applied to the gel. A sample - dyed blue - from one individual is injected into the gel, then another DNA sample next to it, and so on down the row.
DNA is made up of four chemical bases: thymine, adenine, guanine, and cytosine - known by their initials: T and A, G and C. The specific arrangement of these bases on the Y chromosome is passed on almost intact from father to son. But small differences caused by genetic mutation allow scientists to tell chromosomes apart.
NEIL BRADMAN: One way in which you can tell one Y chromosome from another Y chromosome is that in a particular place the T may have changed to an A. That happens very, very rarely, perhaps only once in the course of human evolution it would have occurred at the same place. Another type of change is where some of these letters, for example, GATA, appear as repeats: GATA, GATA, GATA. That may change a little bit more frequently to be - say nine repeats. It may reduce to eight repeats or it may go up to 10 repeats, and the combination of these letter changes and repeats together will enable us to differentiate one Y chromosome from another Y chromosome.
NARRATOR: Each vertical line of colored dots represents a piece of DNA from the Y chromosome of one individual. The rate at which the DNA moves through the gel depends on its precise chemical make-up - the order and number of its As, Ts, Gs, and Cs. DNA with the same chemical make-up will display the same colors at the same places along the vertical lines. These lines can also be displayed as graphs which highlight the differences and similarities between Y chromosomes.
The results are stunning. A group of genetic markers - a distinctive combination of letter changes and repeats, dubbed the Cohen Modal Haplotype - is seen in about 10% of the general Jewish population and in over 50% of the Cohanim. The long-held Jewish belief that priestly status is passed from father to son over the centuries seems to be confirmed in the genes.
DAVID GOLDSTEIN: What it appears is that that particular chromosomal type was a component of the ancestral Hebrew population, and because it was a component of that population it got into the major Jewish - the major contemporary Jewish communities, and also got into the priestly line. And because that chromosomal type is hard to find in non-Jewish populations, its presence in a population would be suggestive of Jewish ancestry.
NARRATOR: The Cohanim study has far-reaching implications for Tudor Parfitt. If the Cohen Modal Haplotype is found among a significant percentage of the Lemba, their claim to Jewish ancestry will suddenly become more credible.
TUDOR PARFITT : I got very intrigued by the possibilities of genetics when I met Neil Bradman. He wanted me to join in his research because in some ways we had things in common. I was interested in scattered Jewish communities for one reason, and he was interested in scattered Jewish communities for another. But it did occur to me that here was the most extraordinary tool for really solving the Lemba problem.
TUDOR PARFITT (in the field): Samuel, could you be the next one? I am just going to put these gloves on. I don't want my Welsh Y chromosomes getting mixed up with your Lemba Y chromosome. Professor Mathiva -
NARRATOR: The Lemba are divided into clans. Parfitt records each man's clan along with his sample.
TUDOR PARFITT: I'm just going to take a photograph.
NARRATOR: Professor Mathiva belongs to the Buba Clan - descendants of an ancient leader who, according to the oral tradition, brought the Lemba out of Judea and eventually to Africa.
TUDOR PARFITT: We are now going north from South Africa, trying to get to the heartlands of the Lemba. Because of the nature of the traditional leadership, we have to get permission to do this DNA testing, and that will certainly go through a number of very complex channels, and I simply hope that works out well.
NARRATOR: Parfitt's destination is the village of Chigato, where he has heard Lemba traditions are particularly strong.
LEMBA MAN: He's saying the permission comes from the chief. (inaudible) want to do any of this. It is the chief who is to give the permission.
TUDOR PARFITT: We will have to go and see the chief this evening I think.
LEMBA MAN: He says he will be very pleased.
TUDOR PARFITT: Yes, we must go there, we planned to go there in fact. But we wanted to come to Sevias first.
LEMBA MAN: He says that's very good.
TUDOR PARFITT: Great, so that's - that will be marvelous.
NARRATOR: It is morning before Parfitt finally gets permission to take genetic samples. It's an important day in the village. There is to be a circumcision ceremony and a feast to honor the ancestors. These practices include elements of Jewish ritual, but could have evolved from other sources. Circumcision is a widespread African custom. Some scholars believe the Lemba were the first to introduce it to the southern continent. But Jewish custom requires that circumcision take place when a boy is eight days old, and these youths are between seven and 15 years old. That's a feature of Muslim tradition.
That afternoon, the Lemba men gather in a hut for Parfitt to collect genetic samples. Despite the formalities involved in obtaining the chief's permission, the villagers themselves are anxious to cooperate.
TUDOR PARFITT: There has never been any difficulty with the Lemba, taking their samples, because they were so keen to get some definitive proof that they were Jews. After all, for years the white Jewish community of South Africa had refused to believe any of their stories, and they really felt that here they might have the proof that they'd been looking for.
TUDOR PARFITT (in the field): The place of your birth? And your cultural identity? Ah, yes, that's something I forgot to put down on the others - so your clan is Sadiki.
NARRATOR: Many of the Lemba's clan names sound similar to words in Arabic or Hebrew: names like Hamesi, Sadiki, Sulamani. Parfitt is convinced the Lemba must have Semitic ancestors. But were they Jews? The DNA analysis may yield a clue.
In London, scientists anxiously await the package from Africa - samples from dozens of Lemba men representing six different clans from towns and villages throughout the southern continent. They'll soon know if there's any hard evidence behind the Lemba oral tradition of Jewish ancestry.
NEIL BRADMAN: When we analyzed the Y chromosomes of the Lemba, what we noticed was that amongst these Semitic Y chromosomes, there was a high frequency of Cohen chromosomes, what's technically called the Cohen Modal Haplotype.
NARRATOR: Another stunning result: the distinctive Cohanim markers appear in the Lemba at the same frequency as they do in the general Jewish population, far more frequently than in any non-Jewish population tested.
DAVID GOLDSTEIN: Something just under one out of every 10 Lemba that we looked at in fact had this particular Y chromosomal type that appears to be a signature of Jewish ancestry. Perhaps even more striking than that, there was in fact an association between that particular Y chromosome type and one of the Lemba clans.
NEIL BRADMAN: There was one particular clan, the Buba, which is, we understand, the premier clan amongst the Lemba, where the frequency of the Y chromosome was very high. In fact, almost 50%.
TUDOR PARFITT: The fact that we found this in such high concentrations in one of the Lemba subclans, much higher than the general Jewish population incidentally, seemed finally to provide a real link - a really useable link between the Lemba and Jews, and that was really the first hard piece of evidence that we got.
NARRATOR: The Cohen Y chromosome type shows up in the Buba clan about as often as in the Cohanim - in about half the men. Does that imply the Buba are Cohanim? What else might explain the frequency of these genetic markers in the Lemba leadership clan? Perhaps Jewish traders - including members of the priestly class - interbred with Buba women in Africa. Though men from the outside have never been welcome into the Lemba tribe - especially among the Buba.
TUDOR PARFITT: No man could in fact ever become a Lemba, could he?
PROFESSOR MATHIVA: No, no man can ever become a Lemba. Only women could qualify to become a Lemba after going through a process of initiation and acceptance.
NARRATOR: Exactly how and when the Lemba came to carry the Cohanim markers remains uncertain, but locating their place of origin might help fill in the picture. Parfitt has promised to find the long-lost Lemba homeland - a city somewhere to the north, called Sena - where the Lemba say they lived before coming to Africa.
TUDOR PARFITT: Professor Mathiva specifically asked me on one occasion to go and find Sena, which acts as a place of origin, but also the place to which they go. They refer to Sena in the same way that we would refer to paradise or heaven. And they say we'll - they say we'll - we'll meet - we'll meet again in Sena, and this kind of thing. It seemed to me that the whole tradition, the whole story was - was magical. And their lack of this information which they act out through plays and songs is one of the most haunting and poignant features I think of their current practice.
TUDOR PARFITT: This is extraordinary. What's it about?
PROFESSOR MATHIVA: It's what they - they teach their children not to forget. It's a sad reminder that when they lose their customs and everything, they will not be people at all. And therefore if they live amongst strangers, they must never forget who they are. Then he says, my grandchildren, stick to what I am telling you. You see here, that's where we come from; that's where our ruins are. Come nearer; you see the graveyard - there lies your grandfather who begot me, your father. So don't cry, let's kneel down. That's why he is talking to the ancestor here. To show them the way: the way to Sena.
NARRATOR: Parfitt may uncover more clues to the Lemba's origins if he can find Sena. Did Jewish populations live there in the past? Do today's inhabitants have any genetic similarities to the Lemba or the Cohanim? His next stop is the village of Sintamule to visit a local expert on Lemba history, William Masala.
TUDOR PARFITT: William, what proof is there that the Sena that you talk of, the people of Sena that you talk of, are connected in any way with the people of Israel?
WILLIAM MASALA: It's in the Bible.
TUTOR PARFITT: In the Bible? Where?
WILLIAM MASALA: Nehemiah 7, verse 38.
TUDOR PARFITT: This is talking about the children of Israel coming back from Babylon, is that right?
WILLIAM MASALA: That's right, yes.
TUDOR PARFITT: And there is a reference to Sena there?
WILLAIM MASALA: Yes, yes, in the Bible. "The children of Sena, 3,930."
TUDOR PARFITT: Now, you talk about Sena. Where is - where is Sena?
WILLIAM MASALA: This book tells us that Sena is in Jericho.
TUDOR PARFITT: In Jericho, in Israel - in Palestine actually, it's part of the Palestine authority.
WILLIAM MASALA: Yes. Jericho, near Jerusalem.
NARRATOR: Based on his biblical dictionary, William Masala places Sena near Jerusalem. But the Lemba oral tradition is much less specific.
TUDOR PARFITT: What they essentially say is that they came from the north, they came from possibly Judea, they subsequently went to a place called Sena, then they crossed from Sena to Africa via Pusela, we don't - we don't know what that is and they don't know what that is. But they say, we crossed Pusela. We came to Africa. And then they say, we rebuilt Sena and then we went inland and had something to do with the construction of a great stone city. At that point we broke the law of God, and we ate mice which were not ritually fit for Lemba consumption. And at that point they were scattered, as they put it, among the nations in Africa.
TUDOR PARFITT (in jeep): I was very moved by William. He was clearly very convinced by his story and he's genuine in his belief that he's Jewish, and his people are of Jewish extraction. And it's interesting, he keeps talking about this - this Sena, this Sena myth, this Sena legend. But it's still quite unclear where it is or what it is.
SHAYE COHEN: The town of S'na'a, or perhaps Sena, is mentioned only three times in the entire Hebrew Bible. All three passages are in the books of Ezra Nehemiah. These books, Ezra Nehemiah, describe the return of the Jews from Babylonia to Judea in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. And we have a list of families and clans that joined in the return from Babylonia to Judea. Sometimes the lists give us names of clans, sometimes the lists give us the numbers of people who come from a certain town. And among these towns that are listed, the towns in the land of Israel whose native sons returned back to Israel, are the sons of S'na'a, or the sons of Sena. [reads Hebrew]
NARRATOR: The sons of Sena were among thousands of Jews freed by Cyrus, King of Persia, and allowed to return to Jerusalem starting in 538 BC to rebuild the temple the Babylonians had destroyed. It may be no more than coincidence that this biblical town had the same name as the Lemba homeland, but if the Lemba did come from the Middle East, why did they leave and migrate down into Africa? Perhaps their motivation was trade, centered in the "Great Stone City" of their oral tradition.
Between the Lemba heartland and Africa's east coast lie the ruins of an ancient civilization called Great Zimbabwe. Lemba legend holds that they built this place before moving on to other parts of Africa. Zimbabwe means "great house of stone," and is the largest ancient ruin in sub-Saharan Africa. Its walls are up to 20 feet thick and 36 feet high, made of over a million blocks hewn from local granite.
TUDOR PARFITT: Great Zimbabwe is central to Lemba belief about themselves. They claim that one of their tribes, the Tovakari, were the actual builders of Zimbabwe. And everything that we can construct about their history indicates that they played something of a role in this stone-building civilization.
NARRATOR: At its height, Great Zimbabwe is thought to have had 18,000 inhabitants, spread over three square miles - a bustling center of trade.
TUDOR PARFITT: The essence of this trade was importing stuff from the Arab coast and then exporting gold, ivory and so on, probably slaves as well. So the very fact of this trade implies a meeting of the Semitic and the African world.
NARRATOR: Europeans first described these ruins in detail in the late 19th century. Influenced by the racist attitudes of the day, they couldn't imagine that such magnificent structures had been built by black Africans. Explorers had long dreamed of discovering a lost white civilization in "darkest" Africa, and this, they thought, must be it.
TUDOR PARFITT: There's an extraordinary character called Karl Mauch who got here in 1871, after traveling throughout Africa for several years in a continuous journey. And when he got here, the first thing that he assumed as he wrote his diary that evening, was that this place was nothing more or less than the palace of the Queen of Sheba, built perhaps by King Solomon. And all kinds of small things within the structure, from the wooden lintels which he thought probably came from Lebanon, where cedar of Lebanon was used in the construction of the temple, to all kinds of other features. He had been told that day, in fact, by some local tribesmen that the great enclosure was in fact the temple of the great woman. And he assumed that the great woman was the Queen of Sheba.
NARRATOR: The legend of the light-skinned African queen joining forces with the last great king of Israel suited the preconceptions of white colonialists. But by 1932, a team of women archaeologists from Great Britain proved, through a series of painstaking excavations, that Great Zimbabwe was built - not in biblical times - but between the 13th and 15thcenturies.
Subsequent research leaves no doubt that Africans built Great Zimbabwe as the center of a thriving civilization, based upon wealth from cattle, ivory, and gold. The Lemba belief that these builders were their ancestors is impossible to prove. But the story of their exodus from Sena could be connected to this great ruin, and to the ancient trade routes that once flowed with African gold, spices from India, porcelain from China.
TUDOR PARFITT: It was this route linking the great civilizations of the Indian Ocean with this place that certainly would have been the route that they would have chosen to enter the country. So from here I think what we should be doing is following the route of the Lemba in reverse and taking the road that they certainly would have taken from wherever their Sena was, from the coast and inland into Zimbabwe.
NARRATOR: Parfitt heads east from Great Zimbabwe, through Mozambique, to the coast. If the Lemba came from the north by sea, the prevailing winds would have brought them here.
TUDOR PARFITT: The Lemba would have been served by ports that served the traffic between Arabia and Africa, because for one part of the year there are winds that whiz you right down the African coast, and then for the rest of the year there are winds that whiz you back, so it really was a kind of superhighway, this piece of water.
NARRATOR: 500 years ago, Arabian vessels plied the Indian Ocean, part of a vast trading empire. The monsoon winds were the critical factor in controlling the flow of trade. During monsoon season, the winds blew down the coast of Africa, and for the rest of the year, the winds reversed. Perhaps Sena lay at the northern end of the trade route - in the Yemen.
The Yemen has a rich and complex past. According to legend, Sanaa, the capital, was founded by a son of Noah after the Great Flood. Jewish communities flourished here for several centuries before the rise of Islam.
SHAYE COHEN: Today, we think of Yemen as a heartland of Arabs and Islam, but we often forget that until recently Yemen was home to a very large, very important Jewish community. In modern times, almost all Yemeni Jews have gone to the land of Israel, but until very recently, throughout the whole Middle Ages and well back into antiquity, the Jewish community of Yemen was a community to reckon with.
NARRATOR: Could this city - Sanaa - be the Lemba's Sena? The Lemba may have roots in the community of Jewish traders who left here for Africa. But Parfitt thinks it's unlikely, for this bustling city has never had strong traditions of emigration - unlike other parts of the Yemen.
This forbidding desert valley, southeast of the capital, is called the Hadramaut, which means "courts of death." The harsh cycles of drought here often force people to abandon the land, head for the coast, and ultimately leave for Africa. Was Sena an ancient village somewhere in this rugged desert?
At one end of the valley stands the town of Seiyun, and a famous Islamic library. Here Tudor Parfitt has arranged to see a noted local scholar, Mohammed al Sacaf, and enlist his help in the search for Sena.
TUDOR PARFITT [subtitles]: There's a tribe in Zimbabwe. They are called the Lemba. People say they are originally from Sena. I don't know where Sena is. I wonder if Seiyun is Sena...
MOHAMMED AL SACAF [subtitles]: Seiyun is not Sena. Sena is three hours east from here. Close to a place called Qabr Hud. Near there you will find Sena. You can see it on this map.
TUDOR PARFITT [subtitles]: Is there a place called Sena in the Hadramaut?
MOHAMMED AL SACAF [subtitles]: This area is called Sena. It's a Bedouin area.
TUDOR PARFITT: This is very interesting!
NARRATOR: Al Sacaf is familiar with a city called Sena - not shown on most maps. It's in an ancient and undeveloped region of the Hadramaut Valley. Encouraged by this new information, Parfitt asks if the Lemba clan-names sound at all like family names here in the Yemen.
TUDOR PARFITT: Sadiki, Namesi, Mahdi, Salimani...
MUHAMMED AL SACAF [subtitles]: Yes, these names are similar to ones in the Hadramaut. Here there are ba-sadik, ba-khamis.... Ba-defines a family name used by tribes in this area. These are well-known names here.
TUDOR PARFITT [subtitles]: These names are used in Zimbabwe.
MUHAMMED AL SACAF [subtitles]: This is amazing!
TUDOR PARFITT: This is really very exciting to discover that there really is a place called Sena in the Hadramaut which for a number of rather convincing reasons is connected probably with the Lemba.
NARRATOR: The road to Sena passes through desolate, dangerous country - the scene of several kidnappings in recent months. Parfitt has arranged for an armed escort.
The road winds out past a shrine to a pre-Islamic prophet called Hud. The shrine is a visible link to Yemen's Jewish past. Although Hud holds a place of honor in Islam, the prophet himself had Jewish ties: the name Hud derives from Yahud - the Arabic word for Jew.
TUDOR PARFITT: Even at the beginning of Islam there were Jews in Arabia. There are references in the Islamic texts of Jews living here at the time of Mohammed. In this area there was a Jewish kingdom and the legendary king, Dhu Nuwas, who fought against the Ethiopians and died driving his charger into the Red Sea. So the whole place is redolent with Jewish history.
NARRATOR: The following day, Parfitt continues on to what he hopes will be the legendary homeland of the Lemba - Sena. Today Sena is dusty and dry - not the sort of place one would think of as paradise. But according to local legend, the city once was lush and teeming with life - until its great stone dam cracked, leaving the town without proper irrigation. About a thousand years ago, people began to leave in great numbers - including, perhaps, the Lemba.
TUDOR PARFITT: It was a very exciting moment when all of these pieces seemed to come together. There are tribal names in that area which are identical to the tribal names of the Lemba. In addition to that, the way of getting from Sena to the sea is via a valley called the Masilah, which sounds rather like the Pusela of the - of the Lemba legend. And then in addition to that, once you get to the sea, it's actually very easy to get to - to Africa.
NARRATOR: Once shrouded in mystery, the Lemba's past is becoming clearer. Parfitt seems convinced he has found Sena - the ancient homeland of their oral tradition. And the startling genetic discoveries make a plausible case for the Lemba's claim to Jewish ancestry. But the genes cannot tell us exactly when the Lemba left the Middle East for Africa, nor when they acquired the distinctive Cohanim markers. The one certainty is that the priestly line of Cohanim began in antiquity, somewhere between 600 and 5,000 years ago. This is revealed through a biological clock, calibrated by the slow accumulation of genetic changes, or mutations.
DAVID GOLDSTEIN: If we have an estimate of how frequently mutations occur from one generation to the next, then essentially what we can do is look at the amount of differences that we see among the Y chromosomes carried by the Cohanim, and we can relate that to how many generations have gone by since the founding of the line. And when we do that, the estimated time that we get is about 3,000 years before the present. And that's of course a number that generates a lot of - a lot of interest. But I - I need to - to emphasize that that's an estimated time and it has a great deal of statistical uncertainty associated with it. But what we can say with some confidence is that it was not founded recently.
NARRATOR: Modern genetics seems to confirm the age-old Jewish belief that a paternally-inherited line of priests - the Cohanim - began centuries ago. Possibly even in biblical times. Other long-held beliefs, however, are beyond the reach of science. The fate of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, expelled from Judea nearly 3,000 years ago, is so obscured by myth it may never be known - let alone be connected to a group of living people. But ongoing detective work - both in the lab and in the remote reaches of Africa and the Middle East - will continue to reveal unexpected truths in the legends of ancient peoples.
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722 BCE: The relief carving from Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, shows the ferocity of Assyrian warriors in attacking and burning an enemy town. Samariak, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, fell to an Assyrian onslaught in 722 B.C.E.[1]
722-705 BCE:
“I besieged and conquered Samerina
I took as booty 27,290 people who lived there.
I gathered 50 chariots from them.
And I taught the rest [of the deportees] their skills.
I set my governor over them, and
I imposed upon them the [same] tribute as the previous king.”
Sargon II. King of Assyria
722 to 520 B.C.E.: Samaritanixm is a very early offshoot of Judaism; indeed, some claim it is not an offshoot at all but rather the most continuous representation of early Hebraic worship. The Samaritans claim to be descendants of the tribes of Menasseh and Ephraim (sons of Joseph) and Levitical priests who were left behind during the Babylonian exile of 722-520 B.C.E. In the fifth century C.E., the Samaritans are thought to have numbered 1.2 million. Today, some 640 individuals remain in the Tel Aviv suburgb of Holon and in the West Bank town of Nablus. A 2004 genetic study of living Samaritans by Marc Feldman, Peter Oefner, and colleagues (Shen et al., “Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages”) found evidence of ancient Samaritan and Cohen ancestry.
721 BCE: The Samaritan Cohanim do not carry the ancient Cohen Modal Haplotype. But in a big surprize the three non-Cohen Samaritan lineages shared the CMH cluster of markers or were very close.
The scientists speculate that not only are today’s Samaritans likely descended from the Israelites, they may be the ancestral remnants of a breakaway group of Jewish priests that did not go into exile when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom in 721 BCE.
Instead, these Cohanim may well have stated, “but married Assyrian and female exiles relocated from other conquered lands, which was a typical Assyrian policy to obliterazte national identities.” It may just be that the tiny clan of Samaritans are a rare surviving branch of the ancient Israelites.
721 B.C… Samaritans
Peidong Shen, Tal Lavi, Toomas Kivisild, Vivian Chou, Deniz Sengun, Dov Gefel, Isaac Shpirer, Eilon Woolf, Jossi Hillel, Marcus W. Feldman, and Peter J. Oefner. "Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations from Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation." Human Mutation 24 (2004): 248-260. Excerpts:
"Based on the close relationship of the Samaritan haplogroup J six-microsatellite haplotypes with the Cohen modal haplotype, we speculate that the Samaritan M304 Y-chromosome lineages present a subgroup of the original Jewish Cohanim priesthood that did not go into exile when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC, but married Assyrian and female exiles relocated from other conquered lands, which was a typical Assyrian policy to obliterate national identities. This is in line with biblical texts that emphasize a common heritage of Jews and Samaritans, but also record the negative attitude of Jews towards the Samaritans because of their association with people that were not Jewish. Such a scenario could explain why Samaritan Y-chromosome lineages cluster tightly with Jewish Y-lineages (Fig. 2A), while their mitochrondrial lineages are closest to Iraqi Jewish and Palestinian mtDNA sequences (Fig. 2B)."
It should also be noted that some Palestinian Arabs who live in the city of Nablus and nearby villages paternally descend from Samaritans who converted to Islam. Their family names include Buwarda, Kasem, Muslimani, Shakshir, Yaish, among others. I don't know whether their Y-DNA has been tested.
721 to 705 B.C.: Sargon II
The first Jewish communities outside of Israel are established during the Babylonian Exile (700 BCE). Jews also settle on the Arabian Peninsula and in Egypt.
Starting in the eighth century B.C., the Jews scattered from their homeland throughout the Middle East and into Africa and Europe. Later migrations took Jews into northern Europe and parts of Asia.
720 BCE: In the course of putting down rebellions in the Aramean state of Hamath and in Gaza, Sargon II reorganizes Israel as a new province of Assyria. Ca 720-701 Jerusalem’s population soars from about 1,000 to 15,000 as refugees move south into Judah from Israel. Neo-Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom and scattered its ten Jewish tribes, giving rise to the legend of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
720 BCE: The prophet Micah castigates the Judean clergy fro venality, while both he and Isaiah ben Amoz caution Judean society on the growing disparity between rich and poor. Micah, even more than Isaiah, forecasts severe devastation for Jerusalem, not unlike that suffered by Samaria.
Ca 720-701 Jerusalem’s population soars from about 1,000 to 15,000 as refugees move south into Judah from Israel. Neo-Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom and scattered its ten Jewish tribes, giving rise to the legend of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
716 B.C.E.: In 716, Sargon is known to have brought another group of people “from coutries of the east.” Additional Assyrian deportations to Palestine are recounted in the book of Ezra, in which there are two instances of groups of people claiming to have been brought to Palestine by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. In the latter case, the people in question unequivocally identify themselves as the “Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites. And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnapper [Ashurbanipal] brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the reat that are on this side [of] the river, and at such a time” (Ezra 4:2, 10-11).
A leading biblical historian concludes that the total impact of these deportations and wars was considerable, withj “large population groups…transferred to new homes throughout the empire” and significant “changes in the composition of the population of Palestine.
716 B.C.: The bibilical source tells us tha the king took the Israelites “away into Assyria, and placed them ih Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Medes” (2 Kings 17:6). All of these locations were within Assyria proper. The region of the “cities of Medes” was located to the east of the empire, beyond its original boundaries, and was fully incorporated into Assyria only after 716. It is alo likely that many of the deportees were settled on farmlands owned by high ranking Assyrian officials, priests, and aristocrats. We know that many of them would have been equippwed with skills beneficial to the Assyrian war effort and would have enjouyed “preferred or at least reasonable” or even “good [treatment].
716-701 BCE: Reign of Pharaoh Shabaka, (younger brother of Piankly); Shabaka is noted in the Old Testament,l Genesis 10/7; It was also noted that Isaiah, King of Israel gave gifts to Shabaka, who had supported these Palestinians at Al-Taku in their fight against the Assyrians under Sennacherib. In order to divert the Assyrians, Shabaka stimulated revolts in the Levant.
716 -687 BCE: Hezekiah, one of Judah’s last good kings, rules.
715 B.C.:Ahaz died in 715 B.C. 2 Kings 16:19-20.
715 B.C.:Isaiah 14:28 states that Isaiah spoke on of his prophecies the year Ahaz died (715 B.C.). The rest of his prophecies in Chapters 13-16 may also have been spoken within this year. Isaiah 13:1-16:14.
715 B.C.:During Hezekiah’s first two months as king (715 B.C.), the temple was purified, worship was reestablished, and the Passover was celebrated for the first time in years. 2 Chreonicles 29:3-31:1.
715 BCE: King Hezekiah of Judah (727-698 BCE), laden with Assyrian taxes and chastened by the recent downfall of northern Israel, promotes religious reform while seeking an opportunity to achieve national independence.
715-663 : Foreign rule by Ethiopia, ended by incursions of the Assyrians who, under Essarhaddon, advance to Thebes (671) but were pushed back by the Ethiopians.
714 BCE: Isaiah tries to persuade Hezekiah to abstain from the rebellion against Assyria led by the city of Ashdod. YHWH, Isaiah affirms, will alert Hezekiah when the time to rebel is at hand.
714 BCE: The prophet Isaiah walks naked and barefoot to symbolize to Judah the emptiness of Egypt’s promise of support for a rebellion against Assyria.
712: BCE: Sargon II puts down the rebellion of Ashdod and allied parties, making some of them provinces of Assyria. Although Judah is involved, along with Edom, Moab, and Ammon, it is not made an Assyrian province.
712 to 332 B.C. Foreign empires rule over Egypt, including Assyria and Persia.
710 BCE: Hezekiah seeks to incorporate remaining northern Israelites into his realm. For the most part, they refuse.
710 BCE: Hezekiah removes from Judah Assyrian images and other cult objects tinged with paganism; he attempts to eliminate worship at shrines outside Jerusalem.
705 B.C.: Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria around 705 B.C. 2 kings 18:18:7b-8.
705-627: The fact that, after the destruction of Israel, three other Assyrian kings-Sennacherib )r.705-681), Esarhaddon (r.681-669), and Ashurbanipal (r.669-627)- also deported people from Palestine, albeit in much smaller numbers, is surely one factor contributin to the sense that the devastation was more complete than it was. Whaever their numeric scope, it is clear that the psychological effect of the deportations was long lasting. As one scholar puts it. “One thing is certain; the impact of these two kings policies was felt for many generations to com.
Sargon’s son and successor, Sennacherib, again moved the Assyrian capital, this time to Nineveh, where he built his own palace. According to the excavator of Nineveh, Austen Henry Layard, the reliefs in Sennacherib’s palace, if lined up in a row, would stretch almost two miles. If anything, Sennacherib surpassed his predecessors in the grisly detail of his descriptions:
“I cut their throats like lambs. I cut off their precious lives (as one cuts) a string. Like the many waters of a storm, I made (the contents of) their gullets and entrails run down upon the wide earth. My prancing steeds harnessed for my riding, plunged into the streams of their blood as (into) a river. The wheels of my war chariot, which brings low the wicked and the evil, were bespattered with blood and filth. With the bodies of their warriors I filled the plain, like grass. (Their) testicles I cut off, and tore out their privates like the seeds of cucumbers.” †
704 B.C.:During the reign of the Assyrian King Sennacherib his army marched several times to put down revolts in Babylonia.
704 BCE: King Hezekiah of Judah joins various Phoenician cities and other local regimes in rebelling against Assyrian domination. Doing his part, he imprisons the Philistine king of Ekron, who supports Assyria.
704 BCE: The Judean prophet Isaiah urges Hezekiah not to rely on Egypt and to avoid war with Assyria.
704 to 681: B.C. Sennacherib, Assyrian King.
The annals of the kings describe not only their military exploits, but also their building activities. This suggests that the spoil and booty taken during the military campaigns formed the financial foundation for the building activities of palaces, temples, canals and other public structures. The booty—property and people—probably provided not only precious building materials, but also artists and workmen deported from conquered territories.
The inscriptional records are vividly supplemented by pictorial representations. These include reliefs on bronze bands that decorated important gates, reliefs carved on obelisks and some engravings on cylinder seals. But the largest and most informative group of monuments are the reliefs sculpted into the stone slabs that lined the palaces’ walls in the empire’s capital cities-Nimrud (ancient Kalah), Khorsahad (ancient Dur Sharrukin) and Kuyunjik (ancient Nineveh).
According to the narrative representations on these reliefs, the Assyrians never lost a battle. Indeed, no Assyrian soldier is ever shown wounded or killed. The benevolence of the gods is always bestowed on the Assyrian king and his troops.
Like the official written records, the scenes and figures are selected and arranged to record the king’s heroic deeds and to describe him as “beloved of the gods”:
“The king, who acts with the support of the great gods his lords and has conquered all lands, gained dominion over all highlands and received their tribute, captures of hostages, he who is victorious over all countries.” †
The inscriptions and the pictorial evidence both provide detailed information regarding the Assyrian treatment of conquered peoples, their armies and their rulers. In his official royal inscriptions, Ashurnasirpal II calls himself the “trampler of all enemies … who defeated all his enemies [and] hung the corpses of his enemies on posts.” † The treatment of captured enemies often depended on their readiness to submit themselves to the will of the Assyrian king:
“The nobles [and] elders of the city came out to me to save their lives. They seized my feet and said: ‘If it pleases you, kill! If it pleases you, spare! If it pleases you, do what you will!’” †
In one case when a city resisted as long as possible instead of immediately submitting, Ashurnasirpal proudly records his punishment:
British Museum
Assyrian headhunters gather their trophies. In a relief from Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh, two scribes, standing side by side at right, record the number of the enemy slain in a campaign in southern Mesopotamia. Heads lie in a heap at their feet. The foreground scribe uses pen and ink on a leather scroll; the other scribe writes with a stylus on a hinged writing-board coated with wax.
“I flayed as many nobles as had rebelled against me [and] draped their skins over the pile [of corpses]; some I spread out within the pile, some I erected on stakes upon the pile … I flayed many right through my land [and] draped their skins over the walls.” †
The account was probably intended not only to describe what had happened, but also to frighten anyone who might dare to resist. To suppress his enemies was the king’s divine task. Supported by the gods, he always had to be victorious in battle and to punish disobedient people:
“I felled 50 of their fighting men with the sword, burnt 200 captives from them, [and] defeated in a battle on the plain 332 troops. … With their blood I dyed the mountain red like red wool, [and] the rest of them the ravines [and] torrents of the mountain swallowed. I carried off captives [and] possessions from them. I cut off the heads of their fighters [and] built [therewith] a tower before their city. I burnt their adolescent boys [and] girls.” †
A description of another conquest is even worse:
“In strife and conflict I besieged [and] conquered the city. I felled 3,000 of their fighting men with the sword … I captured many troops alive: I cut off of some their arms [and] hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears, [and] extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.” †
702 BCE: Fearing Assyrian repriasal, Hezekiah constructs a tunnel leading water from the Siloam pool into Jerusalem. It would be vital in case of a siege. A contemporary Hebrew inscription marking the completion of the tunnel will come to light in 1880 CE.
Erich Lessing
701 B.C.: Ancient looters, the Assyrian soldiers carry away their booty after conquering Lachish in 701 B.C., depicted in this detail from a relief in Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh. The riches thus acquired provided important funding for the monumental construction programs that the Assyrian kings undertook.
701 B.C.: Micah’s prophecy in 1:8-16 does not contain a specific date by which to place it in Israel’s history. But because it anticipates Assyria’s attack on Judah, it can generally be placed before 701 B.C. None of the rest of Micah’s prophecies (2:2-7:20) contain specific dates, but they do deal with Judah’s fate at the time of Assyria’s attack and, therefore, may be placed here as well. Micah 1:8-3:12.
701 B.C.
In 701 B.C., Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked the fortified towns of Judah and threatened to capture Jerusalem. 2 Kings 18:13-19:37. King Hezekiah of Judah withheld Assyrian tribute, Sargon II’s successor, Sennacherib, marched into Judah, destroying, according to his claim, 46 cities and besieging Jerusalem. Although Sennacherib failed to capture Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 19:32–36 ), Hezekiah no doubt continued to pay tribute to Assyria.
The two principal tasks of an Assyrian king were to engage in military exploits and to erect public buildings. Both of these tasks were regarded as religious duties. They were, in effect, acts of obedience toward the principal gods of Assyria.
The historical records of ancient Assyria consist of tablets, prisms and cylinders of clay and alabaster. They bear inscriptions in cuneiform—wedge-shaped impressions representing, for the most part, syllables. In addition, we have inscribed obelisks and stelae as well as inscriptions on stone slabs that lined the walls and covered the floors of Assyrian palaces and temples.
In all of these inscriptions, the king stands at the top of the hierarchy—the most powerful person; he himself represents the state. All public acts are recorded as his achievements. All acts worthy of being recorded are attributed only to the Assyrian king, the focus of the ancient world.
Erich Lessing
Impaled on stakes. Two Assyrian soldiers erect a stake with an impaled, naked man beside two others. The heads of these captured men of Lachish sag forward, suggesting that they are already dead. This detail comes from a series of reliefs, found at Nineveh, in which Sennacherib (704–681 B.C.) recorded the exploits of his invasion of Judah in 701 B.C. Lachish was among the 46 cities he conquered.
In our day, these depictions, verbal and visual, give a new reality to the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C. and to Sennacherib’s subsequent campaign into Judah in 701 B.C.
Erich Lessing
Written records left by the Assyrian kings supplement and corroborate the brutality depicted in the reliefs that decorated their palaces. These records, written in a wedge-shaped script called cuneiform, have been preserved primarily in three forms: prisms, cylinders and tablets made of clay or alabaster. One of the most famous Assyrian prisms contains the annals of Sennacherib. Among the events crowded onto the six faces of this 15-inch-high, clay prism is a boastful account of Sennacherib’s destruction of Judah in 701 B.C. Inscribed in about 691 B.C., the account says in part: “Forty-six of [Hezekiah’s] strong walled towns and innumerable smaller villages … I besieged and conquered … . As for Hezekiah, the awful splendor of my lordship overwhelmed him.”
In several rooms of Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh, severed heads are represented; deportation scenes are frequently depicted. Among the deportees depicted, there are long lines of prisoners from the Judahite city of Lachish; they are shown pulling a rope fastened to a colossal entrance figure for Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh; above this line of deportees is an overseer whose hand holds a truncheon.
British Museum
Drawing of relief.
A multitude of slaves, prisoners of war from different parts of the Near East, labor probably to adorn Sennacherib’s Southwest Palace at Nineveh. In both details, three rows of men pull on heavy ropes, dragging large stones to the palace. Hovering over them, Assyrian overseers stand poised to strike with their truncheons. The men in the middle row of each detail appear to be Judahite captives, for they are dressed similarly to the deportees from Lachish in other reliefs at Nineveh. These details come from reliefs in Court VI of the palace.
701 B.C.: In the year 701 B.C. Aramaic had not yet penetrated to Judaea. When the rabshakeh (officer) sent by Sennacherib addressed the envoys of Hezekiah in Hebrew, they begged him to speak Aramaic in ordert that the men upon the wall might not understand. For the post exilic period the Aramaic edicts in the Book of Ezra and inscriptions on Persian coins made good its position as the language of common intercourse. Its domain extended from the Euxine southwards as far as Egypt, and even into Egypt itself. Samaria and the Hauran adopted it. Only the Greek towns and Phoenicia resisted.
701: The paradigmatic biblical account illustrating the connection that the Assyrians saw between deportation and imperial stability involves the siege on Jerusalem in 701, the culminating poinjt of which, as recounted in 2 Kings, is a dramatic speech delivered by Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s chief officer, to the besieged Jerusalemites. Standing on a ramp facing the walls of Jerusalem, the Assyrian official tries to persuade the besieged that resistance is futile and explains the advantages of surrender:
[F]or thus saith the king of Assyria, [m]ake an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern. Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyars, a land of olive oil and of honey, that ye may live, and not die. (2 Kings 18:31-32)
701 BCE: The prophet Isaiah breaks with past custom and encourages Hezekiah to rebel against Assyria. Arrogant Assyria, Isaiah affirms, will be brought down while YHWH will protect his holy seat in Jerusalem. The doctrine of Zion’s inviolability may be bound up with the idea that the Davidic dynasty will reign forever.
701 BCE: The Assyrian siege of the city of Jerusalem was broken in 701 B.C. when the forces surrounding the city were struck by plague and forced to withdraw, leaving Jerusalem the only unconquered city in the Jewish realms.
185,000 Assyrians died, an angel of the lord had killed them.
701 BCE: In 701 Sennacherib would invade Judah with a vast Assyrian army, lay siege to forty-six of its cities and fortresses, impale the defending officers on poles, deport about 2000 people and imprison the Jewish king in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage.” Isaiah had the thankless task of warning his people of these impending catastrophes.
“There will be great emptiness in the country and, though a tenth of the people remain, it will be stripped like a terebinth of which, once felled, only the stock remains.”
Isaiah 6:13
700 BCE: Sennacherib records in his annals that he trapped Hezekiah in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage,” exacting considerable booty, including some of Hezekiah’s daughters.
700 BCE The first humans known to have existed in the Ohio River Valley were the Adena and Hopewell cultures, the Adenas preceding the Hopewells by a few centuries or more (perhaps as early as 700 B.C.) and erecting their distinctive conical burial mounds along the entire course of the river and its tributaries from the present Wheeling, West Virginia, area down into and including the Mississippi River Valley.
698 BCE: Manasseh, who succeeds his father Hezekiah as king of Judah, accepts the fact of Assyrian lordship.
698 BCE: Manasseh will go beyond his grandfather Ahaz in introducing pagan rituals and symbols into Judah and the Jerusalem Temple. One striking innovation is the astral cult, possibly influenced by Assyria.
698-642 B.C.: Manasseh, King of Southern Israel.
In 688 B.C. Sennacherib’s son was captured and killed by an invading army. Sennacherib blamed the Babylonian’s for failing to protect and defend him.
687-642 BCE: Manasseh rules Judah, establishes pagan cults in the Temple, and (according to later tradition) executes Isaiah.
686 B.C.: Hezekiah died around 686 B.C. His son Manasseh then became the sole ruler of Judah. 2 kings 20:20-21.
681 B.C.: These prophecies of Isaiah look into the destant future and, therefore, were likely given toward the end of Isaiah’s ministry (681 B.C.), even though they are undated. Isaiah 24:1-27:13.
680 B.C. : Upon Sennacherib’s death his son Esarhaddon became king of Assyria in 680 B.C. Immediately he wanted to rebuild Babylon. Esarhaddon, was King of Neo Assyrian Empire 680–669 B.C.:. Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons. Another son, Esarhaddon, became his successor. As the following examples show, Esarhaddon treated his enemies just as his father and grandfather had treated theirs: “Like a fish I caught him up out of the sea and cut off his head,” † he said of the king of Sidon; “Their blood, like a broken dam, I caused to flow down the mountain gullies”; † and “I hung the heads of Sanduarri [king of the cities of Kundi and Sizu] and Abdi-milkutti [king of Sidon] on the shoulders of their nobles and with singing and music I paraded through the public square of Nineveh. †
671 BCE: Manasseh assists the Assyrian army in its campaign against Egypt.
669 B.C. : When Esarhaddon died in 669 B.C. he left his son Ashurbanipal a kingdom that stretched from Egypt to Persia. Ashurbanipal began sending agents to search out cuneiform tablets from the archives and schools in the Babylonian temples. His scribes then meticulously copied and catalogued some 20,000 of them before they were housed in what was then the worlds first library.
668–627 B.C.: Ashurbanipal, King of Neo Assyrian Empire.
British Museum
One of the perpetrators. Making a grand appearance, Ashurbanipal II (668–627 B.C.) wears his conical hat surmounted by a point, the special headdress of Assyrian kings, and stands in his ornate chariot as he receives captives and spoils (not shown) from one of his conquests.
Ashurbanipal, Esarhaddon’s son, boasted:
“Their dismembered bodies I fed to the dogs, swine, wolves, and eagles, to the birds of heaven and the fish in the deep…. What was left of the feast of the dogs and swine, of their members which blocked the streets and filled the squares, I ordered them to remove from Babylon, Kutha and Sippar, and to cast them upon heaps.” †
When Ashurbanipal didn’t kill his captives he “pierced the lips (and) took them to Assyria as a spectacle for the people of my land.” †
The enemy to the southeast of Assyria, the people of Elam, underwent a special punishment that did not spare even their dead:
“The sepulchers of their earlier and later kings, who did not fear Assur and Ishtar, my lords, (and who) had plagued the kings, my fathers, I destroyed, I devastated, I exposed to the sun. Their bones (members) I carried off to Assyria. I laid restlessness upon their shades. I deprived them of food-offerings and libations of water.” †
Among the reliefs carved by Ashurbanipal were pictures of the mass deportation of the Elamites, together with severed heads assembled in heaps. Two Elamites are seen fastened to the ground while their skin is flayed, while others are having their tongues pulled out.
Assyrian headhunters. Piled heads appear in a relief from the reign of Ashurbanipal (668–627 B.C.), seen here as drawn from the original. In this scene the heads are collected inside a tent, at left. Outside the tent, two Assyrian soldiers carrying additional heads wade through the decapitated bodies of their Elamite enemies.
There is no reason to doubt the historical accuracy of these portrayals and descriptions. Such punishments no doubt helped to secure the payment of tribute—silver, gold, tin, copper, bronze and iron, as well as building materials including wood, all of which was necessary for the economic survival of the Assyrian empire
663-609: Psamtik, who freed Egypt from Assyrian rule and suppressed the power of the priests of Amon and the Libyian mercenaries. Ionian mercenarie3s were settled in the Delta region and Ionian trading stations were founded (Naucratis).
662: Conquest of Egypt by Assurbanapal. Egypt became an Assyrian province. Provincial princes ruled as governors, among them the founder of the 26th Dynasty.
652 BCE: King Manasseh of Judah may respond to Egyptian incitement to join the rebellion against Assyria.
652-612 BCE: Nahum prophesied between 652 and 612 B.C. He spoke of the judgment to come upon Nineveh, which occurred in 612 B.C. Nahum 1:1-3:19.
649-609 BCE: Josiah, Judah’s last good king, rules, attempts religious reform, and sponsors new editions of principal historical documents, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
Josiah was bent on reforming worship, and his major undertaking was the plan to centralize all worship in the Temple at Jerusalem. The shrines that dotted the mountains of Judah were destroyed, and the priests who had attended them were brought to Jerusalem and made subordinate to the priests of the Temple.
642 B.C.1: Amon became king of Judah in 642 B.C. 2 Kings 21:18-26.
640 B.C.:Josiah became the king of Judah in 640 B.C. 2 Kings 22:1-2.
640-621: Zephaniah prophesied during Josiah’s reign between 640 and 621 B.C. Zephaniah 1:1-3:20.
639-609 B.C. : Joshiah, King of Southern Israel.
639-609 B.C. Judah went on to develop its own hopes and dreams of greatness and expansion. Most involved trying to capture territories that had once belonged to its northern neighbor and consolidating the rule of the house of David in the kingdom’s old as well as new domains. Attempts to consolidate the rule of a national religion around the cult of the Yahweh divinity accompanied these political efforts. The culmination of this centuries-long transformation came under the reign of King Josieh (r639-609), during which Judah expanded northward, annexing territories that had belonged to the now defunct kingdom of Israel, former home of the ten tribes. Josiah, a charismatic and active leader most probably moved by messianic motivations, presided over the “great reformation”, the triumph of the Deuteronomistic movement, which insisted on the cult of one god in the temple in Jerusalem and was violently opposed to other cults or locations of worship. The event that marks the beginning of this reformation, in 2 Kinhgs, was the discovery in the temple in Jerusalem of a lost book, Deuteronomy, which would be the blueprint for the emergin faith. These developments brought a further locaticve dimension to the Israelite world view; alongside the distant world boundaries marked out first by Assyrian propaganda came a very rigid sencse of Jerusalem as the definitive center, the ultimate place to which one was to (re)turn.
640: BCE: Elamites and others suppressed by Ashurbanipal are deported to and resettled in Israel.
640 BCE: King Amon, son of Manasseh, is assassinated after a two-year reign. His younger brother Josiah, though only eight, is made king of Judah.
632 B.C.
Josiah began to seek God in 632 B.C. 2 Chronicles 34:3.
628 B.C.Pursuing the Cimmerians into Asia Minor, the Scythians struggled with the Assyrians and the Medes, and were pushed back by the Median king, Cyaxares, in 628 B.C. .
628 BCE: Seeing the Assyrian Empire wane, King Josiah begins to assert Judean nationalism. He takes control of Samaria and other northern Israelite areas and removes ritual elements associated with Assyria.
628 BCE: In the spirit of a general ancient Near Eastern turn toward classical culture. Josiah would seem to be reviving an ideal past. Such as that of Moses or David.
627 B.C.: Jeremiah began his ministry in 627 B.C., the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign. The following prophecies of Jeremiah date back to this time. Jeremiah 1:1-19. Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible. Jeremiah, a priest and a member of the household of Hilkiah, ministered in Jerusalem from the reign of King Josiah in 627 to the destruction of the city in 586 B.C., serving under Judah’s last five kings. This was a chaotic time, morally, politically, and spiritually for the nation. For forty years, Jeremiah preached a message of repentance, warning of impending judgment, which had little impact or change in people’s hearts. Poverty stricken and all alone, he faces imprisonment, exile to Egypt, a rejection from firendds and family as well as persecution from kings and audiences. Throughout his life, this prophet would stand alone, declaring God’s message of doom, announcing the new coenant, and weeping over the fate of his beloved country. Yet Jeremiah remains faithfull to God and ovedient to the call. The basic theme of Jeremiah’s message is clear: “Repent and turn to God, or He will punish.”
626-585 B.C.: Jeremiah, major prophet, southern Israel.
625 BCE: The prophets Zephaniah and Jeremiah threaten national catastrophe if Judeans do not abandon all pagan practice and immoral conduct. Jeremiah, it would seem, lends strong support to Josiah’s reform.
622 B.C.:The Book of the Law was discovered in the temple in 622 B.C,., the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign. 2 kings 22:3-20.
622 BCE The dangers of an “idolatrous” religiosity became clear in about 622 BCE during the rign of King Josiah of Judah. He was anxious to reverse the syncretist policies of his predecessors, King Manasseh (687-642) and King Amon (642-40), who had encouraged their people to worship the gods of Canaan alongside Yahweh. Manesseh had actually put up an effigy to Asherah in the Temple, where there was a flourishing fertility cult. Since most Israelites were devoted to Asherahand some thought that she was Yahweh’s wife, only the strictest Yahwists would have considered this blashemous.
622 BCE IN conjunction with King Josiah’s reform, a book of instruction (torah) is publicly read. The book calls for elimination of all foreign cult forms, specifying astral worship among other items, and prohibits all but one central shrine. Josiah applies the book’s program, destroying all shrines except the Jerusalem Temple, eradicating the rural priesthood, and assembling Israelites in Jerusalem to celebrate the spring festival of Pesah (Passover) (2 Kings 22-23). The book Josiah “found” is probably the core of Deuteronomy.
620 BCE: The Old Testament makes reference to the ark still being in the Temple…at Passover during the reign of Josiah…later around 620 BC.
620 BCE: The Book of Ruth may be composed at about this time. An idyllic story about the bond between a Judean woman, Naomi, and her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, and the kindness in turn by the Bethlehem noble, Boas, who redeems Naomi’s land and marries Ruth to preserve the name of Ruth’s late husband, the tale takes on political import when in the end it is recounted that King David is descended from Ruth and Boaz. Some scholars think the book was written to oppose the measures against intermarriage by Ezra and Nehamiah in the 5th century. In Jewish tradition Ruth is the model convert, committing herself to the God, people, and land of Israel.
620 BCE: The Book of Proverbs is compiled from various older and younger collections of Hebrew proverbial wisdom. Probably within a century of this date. The universal character of the pragmatic advice that is offered in the book accords with the appearance of Phoenician influence in Chapters 1-9 and of borrowing from the Egyptian “Wisdom of Amen-em-opet in Chapters 22-24. In the form of counsel addressed to a young man, Proverbs holds that pious and correct behavior will bring one prosperity.
April 21, 586: Ricard I became King the Visigoth King of Hispania. “A year later converted from Arianism for Catholicism, which changed the nature of life in Iberia in the same way that Constantine's conversion had changed things in the Roman Empire. Recared approved the Third Council of Toledo's move in 589 to forcibly baptize the children of mixed marriages between Jews and Christians. Toledo III also forbade Jews from holding public office, from having intercourse with Christian women, and from performing circumcisions on slaves or Christians. Still, Recared was not entirely successful in his campaigns: not all Visigoth Arians had converted to Catholicism; the unconverted were true allies of the Jews, oppressed like themselves, and Jews received some protection from Arian bishops and the independent Visigothic nobility.”
589 CE: The Council of Narbonne, Septimania, forbids Jews from chanting psalms while burying their dead. Anyone violating this law is fined 6 ounces of gold. The third Council of Toledo, held under Visigothic King Reccared, bans Jews from slave ownership and holding positions of authority, and reiterates the mutual ban on intermarriage.[1] Reccared also rules children out of such marriages to be raised as Christians.
April 21, 1073: Pope Alexander II passed away. In 1063, Pope Alexander II had given his blessing to Iberian Christians in their wars against the Muslims, granting both a papal standard and an indulgence to those who were killed in battle. This was another act in the battle between Moslems and Christians for control of Spain. The Jews were caught in the middle and their fortunes fluctuated over the centuries. In hindsight, this was really just one more step in the long path that led to the expulsion in 1492.
April 21, 1521: After the April 21, 1521 assignment of the Austrian lands to Ferdinand I by his brother Emperor Charles V (also King Charles I of Spain) (1516–1556), the dynasty split into the junior branch of the Austrian Habsburgs and the senior branch of the Spanish Habsburgs. The Austrian Habsburgs held the title of Holy Roman Emperor after Charles' death in 1558, as well as the Habsburg Hereditary Lands and the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.
The senior Spanish branch ruled over Spain, its Italian possessions and its colonial empire, the Netherlands, and, for a time (1580-1640), Portugal. Hungary was partly under Habsburg rule from 1526. For 150 years most of the country was occupied by the Ottoman Turks but these territories were re-conquered in 1683–1699.
In the secret Oñate treaty, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs settled their mutual claims. The Spanish Habsburgs died out in 1700 (prompting the War of the Spanish Succession), as did the last male of the Austrian Habsburg line in 1740 (prompting the War of the Austrian Succession), and finally the last female of the Habsburg male line in 1780.
Extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs[edit]
The Habsburgs sought to consolidate their power by the frequent use of consanguineous marriages, with a cumulatively deleterious effect on their gene pool. Marriages between first cousins, or between uncle and niece, were commonplace in the family. A study of 3,000 family members over 16 generations by the University of Santiago de Compostela suggests that inbreeding directly led to their extinction. The gene pool eventually became so small that the last of the Spanish line Charles II, who was severely disabled from birth, perhaps by genetic disorders, possessed a genome comparable to that of a child born to a brother and sister, as did his father, likely due to "remote inbreeding".[9]
April 21, 1541: James and Mary had two sons. James Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, was born May 22, 1540 at St Andrews. Robert was born and baptised on April 12, 1541, but both died on April 21, 1541, when James was nearly one year old and Robert was eight days old. Mary's mother Antoinette de Bourbon wrote that the couple was still young and should hope for more children. She thought a change of wet-nurse and over-feeding may not have helped.[18] The third and last child of the union was a daughter Mary, who was born on December 8, 1542. King James died six days later, making the infant Mary queen regnant of Scotland.
Between April 21 and 23, 1567, Mary visited her son at Stirling for the last time where the prince her son was residing under the care of the Earl of Marr.
George Washington to Andrew Lewis, April 21, 1758
April 21, 1729: Birthdate of Catherine the Great, Tsarina of Russia from 1762 to 1796. Under Catherine, Russia took part in the three-way partition of Poland which gave Russia its large Jewish population. At first, her treatment of her new Jewish subjects was fairly tolerant. She saw them as an economic asset. But in her later years she succumbed to the demands of Christian merchants and began to tighten the noose around the neck of the Jews. In the end, she laid the groundwork for the creation of what came to be known as The Pale of Settlement.
Fort Loudoun, April 21, 1758.
Sir: I do not yet know, whether any of the Levies raised by the newly appointed Officers, in consequence of the late Act of Assembly, will fall to our share; and as we want about 130 men to complete the Virginia Regiment, I earnestly recommend, that you will use the most efficacious means in your power to recruit your quota in Augusta, and its Borders: Farther than this District I wou’d not have you send Officers recruiting, as they must be ready to join you as soon as the Troops are ordered to this place. I have no money to send you for this purpose (which is a misfortune) but you may give the Recruits the strongest assurances, in myname, that they shall, upon their arrival at this place, receive each man £10 and a suit of Clothes, advantage of the Recruits for the New Regiment. I would have you send Lt. Crawford4 directly to this place; he is well acquainted in those parts, and I hope from such encouragement, will be able to pick up some clever fellows.
[Note 4: Lieut. John Crawford.] (William Crawford’s son.)
I have so often, and earnestly recommended the due practice of the Soldiers in their Exercises, that it is needless, I hope, to urge it again to [you] in this letter. But I must desire, that you will take great pains to get all your Arms straightened, and the men taught to shoot well at Targets, as that is an highly necessary qualification in our Service.
I offer my Compliments to Captn. McNeill, and all the Officers, and am, Sir, etc.
The cession to Spain was finally revealed in 1764. In a letter dated April 21, 1764, Louis informed the governor, Charles Philippe Aubry, of the transition:
Hoping, moreover, that His Catholic Majesty will be pleased to give his subjects of Louisiana the marks of protection and good will which only the misfortunes of war have prevented from being more effectual.
The colonists in western Louisiana did not accept the transition, and expelled the first Spanish governor in the Rebellion of 1768. Alejandro O'Reilly (an Irish émigré) suppressed the rebellion and formally raised the Spanish flag in 1769.
The acquisition of Louisiana consolidated the Spanish empire in North America. When the United States returned Florida to Spain in 1783 following its victory in the American Revolutionary War, Spanish territory completely encircled the Gulf of Mexico, and stretched from Florida west to the Pacific Ocean, and north to Canada west of the Mississippi River.
April 21, 1778: Brigadier-General Richard Prescott had been captured November 17, 1775, and exchanged September 4, 1776, for General Sullivan.
General Prescott was again captured near Newport, Rhode Island, July
10, 1777, and exchanged April 21, 1778, for Major-General Charles Lee.
April 21, 1789: John Adams, 1st Vice President of the United States In office April 21, 1789 – March 4, 1797 President George Washington Preceded by None Succeeded by Thomas Jefferson.
April 21, 1792: William McCormick (undoubtedly the son of William and Effie (Crawford) McCormick and grandson of Col. William Crawford), from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, is recorded as having 500 acres on the south Fork of the Licking River' 4 miles about the said Fork, part of Philip Pendleton's survey containing 1,900 acres. Dated April 21 1792. Book A. page 225; Book A, page 406; Book G, page 12. Dated July 27, 1803.
Other McCormick transactions in Pendleton County, Kentucky, may be found in Book F, pages 49, 50 and 270, in the Clerk of Courts office. These transactions were seemingly made in Hamilton County, Ohio, when Jane and John Lillard and Mary Ann McCormick signed off to Charles McCormick. (See the last will and testament of William McCormick, Sr. of Fayette County, Pennsylvania). These records mentions a Graham Wallace.
April 21, 1792
Other records of Col. William Crawford’s heirs, who emigrated to the western frontier, were descendants of his daughter Effie, who married William McCormick. In Pendleton County, Kentucky, a few members of this branch are represented. William McCormick (undoubtedly the son of William and Effie (Crawford) McCormick and grandson of Col.William Crawford), from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, is recorded as having 500 acres n the South Fork of the Licking River; 4 miles above the said Fork, part of Philip Pendleton’s survey containing 1,900 acres. Dated April 21, 1792. Book A. page 225; Book A, page 406; Book G, page 12, Dated July 27, 1803.
April 21, 1792: Albert Elwell STEPHENSON. [6] Born on September 7, 1886 in Chariton County, Missouri. Albert Elwell died in Dean Lake, Chariton County, Missouri on April 21, 1972; he was 85. Buried in Stephenson Cemetery, Dean Lake, Chariton County, Missouri.
On May 31, 1914 when Albert Elwell was 27, he married Maude Ann VANCE, in Dade County, Missouri. Born on September 30, 1887 in Dade County, Missouri. Maude Ann died in May 1929; she was 41. Buried in Stephenson Cemetery, Dean Lake, Chariton County, Missouri.
They had the following children:
i. Nelda May (1915-1973)
ii. Lois (Louis?) Eldridge (1917-1993)
iii. Eldon Pershing (1918-)
iv. Ollie Verlee (1920-)
v. Robert (1922-)
vi. Glendon Dale (1924-)
April 21, 1824: Andrew Jackson appointed to the joint committee to set time for adjournment of Congress.
April 21, 1835 Francis Godlove Junior posted bond to administer Francis Godlove’s estate: brother-in-law Henry Detewick [Didawick] surety. The younger Francis Godlove administered the estate of his father. In the bond, the deceased was called Francis Godlove and the administrator was Francis Godlove Junior. He posted his bond on April 21, 1835 with Henry Detewick [Didawick] as suretor.
April 21, 1836: The brave defense of the Alamo became a powerful symbol for the Texas revolution, helping the rebels turn the tide in their favor. At the crucial Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 910 Texan soldiers commanded by Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana's army of 1,250 men, spurred on by cries of "Remember the Alamo!" The next day, after Texan forces captured Santa Ana himself, the general issued orders for all Mexican troops to pull back behind the Rio Grande River.
April 21, 1836: The brave defense of the Alamo became a powerful symbol for the Texas revolution, helping the rebels turn the tide in their favor. At the crucial Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 910 Texan soldiers commanded by Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana's army of 1,250 men, spurred on by cries of "Remember the Alamo!" The next day, after Texan forces captured Santa Ana himself, the general issued orders for all Mexican troops to pull back behind the Rio Grande River. On May 14, 1836, Texas officially became an independent republic. Gary and Mary Goodlove discovered the name of a Harrison on the official plaque at the Alamo. It is not known if he is a relative. I bet that he is. The Harrison’s never miss a fight.
April 21, 1836:
Sam Houston
April 21, 1843: The Massachusetts liberty law, entitled “An Act further to Protect personal Liberty Approved by Governor…” of March 25, 1843, is printed in the Norfolk Democrat (Dedham, Massachusetts), April 21, 1843. As to the complexion of the legislature there is some question. The Democrats were in power except in the house, where they had the speaker and the standing committees against them. In the house of 357 members there were 177 Democrats, 175 Whigs and five Liberty party members, who held the balance of power. But during the last week of the session, some “illegal” members having been eliminated, and with one or two members deserting party, the bill was passed.
April 21, 1853: Catharina GUTLEBEN was born on April 21, 1853 in Muhlbach,Munster,Colmar,Upper Rhine,Alsace. Catharina married Mathias BRAESCH on May 1, 1877 in Muhlbach,Munster,Colmar,Upper Rhine,Alsace.
April 21, 1856: The first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
Thurs. April 21, 1864
Orders to march at 4 pm
Stacked arms and went to sleep
William Harrison Goodlove Civil War Diary, 24th Iowa Infantry
April 21, 1897: Lenore Dayse Cornell (the Cornell Bible gives the spelling as Leenorah. The family called her "Daise" but when she came to Calif, she changed her name to Dorothy) b November 27, 1877 at Springville, Linn, Ia. d April 21, 1931 at Los Angeles, Calif, md (1) Robert A. Gillespie in Los Angeles but there were no children. Md (2) William Jenning Caskey. They had a dau Hazelle Mildred Caskey b April 21, 1897 at Springville, Ia. md in Los Angeles Carl Bohrman and they had a dau Betty Bohrman b ca 1918-20 at Los Angeles and she md ca 1940 Rolland Eidem. It is believed that Betty and Rolland had a boy and girl and have grandchildren, that live in Gardena, Calif. Hazelle Mildred Caskey Bohrman d in the early 1960's at Los Angeles and is buried at Roosevelt Memorial Cemetery in Gardena, Calif.
April 21, 1926: Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon 16 [Claude George Bowes-Lyon 15, Frances Dora Smith 14, Henrietta Mildred Hodgson 13, Robert Hodgson 12, Mildred Porteus11, Robert Porteus10, Mildred Smith9, John Smith8, John Smith7, Christopher Smith6, Thomas Smythe5, Thomas Smythe4, John Smythe3, Richard2, William1] (b. 1900 / d. 2002) married King Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor, IV (b. 1895 / d. 1952).
A. Children of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Albert Windsor:
+ . i. Elizabeth Alexandria Mary Windsor (b. April 21, 1926)
More about Elizabeth Windsor:
Elizabeth is the Current QUEEN of ENGLAND.
Elizabeth II (10th cousin of Gerol Lee Goodlove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Elizabeth II (disambiguation).
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II in 2007
Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms
List[show]
o
Reign 6 February 1952 – present
Coronation
June 2, 1953
Predecessor George VI
Heir apparent Charles, Prince of Wales
Prime Ministers See list
Spouse Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (m. 1947)
Detail
Issue
• Charles, Prince of Wales
• Anne, Princess Royal
• Prince Andrew, Duke of York
• Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Full name
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary
House
House of Windsor
Father George VI
Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Born April 21, 1926 (age 86)
Mayfair, London, England, United Kingdom
Religion • Church of England
• Church of Scotland
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born April 21, 1926[note 1]) is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states, known as the Commonwealth realms, and their territories and dependencies, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. She is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and, in some of her realms, carries the title of Defender of the Faith as part of her full title.
April 21, 1942: Ewell Alexander Rowell (b. December 20, 1870 in GA / d. April 21, 1942 in AL).
Ewell Alexander Rowell13 [Arminda Smith12, Gabriel D. Smith11, Gabriel Smith10, John “LR” Smith9, Ambrose J. Smith8, Christopher Smith7, Christopher Smith6, Thomas Smythe5, Thomas Smythe4, John Smythe3, Richard2, William1] (b. December 20, 1870 in Carroll Co. GA / d. April 21, 1942) married Ann Bell Shepard (b. March 4, 1869 in AL / d. June 27, 1960) on July 13, 1890 in Edwardsville, AL.
April 21, 1944: From April 21, 1944 until her accession, Elizabeth's arms consisted of a lozenge bearing the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, differenced with a label of three points argent, the centre point bearing a Tudor rose and the first and third a cross of St George.[196] Upon her accession, she inherited the various arms her father held as sovereign. The Queen also possesses royal standards and personal flags for use in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, and elsewhere.[197]
•
Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth (1944–1947)
•
Coat of arms of Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh (1947–1952)
•
Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in the United Kingdom (except Scotland)
•
Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in Scotland
•
Coat of arms of Elizabeth II in Canada (one of three versions used in her reign)[note 4]
April 21, 1961 JFK opens a breakfast meeting that precedes a scheduled press
conference by remarking: “The happiest people in government today are the ones who can say they
didn’t know anything about it” (the Bay of Pigs invasion). According to notes taken by Richard N.
Goodwin, JFK is “concerned that the entire blame for this not be placed on the CIA.” JFK continues:
“In my experience, things like this go along for a while, but memory is short, and if we just sit tight for
about three weeks, things will cool off and we can proceed from there.” Still, JFK’s popularity goes to an
all-time high of over 80 percent. “The worse you do, the better they like you,” JFK remarks on seeing
the poll results.
Less than a week following the Bay of Pigs debacle, a meeting is held with JFK’s Cuban
advisors. Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles advises that nothing can be done about Castro
- as he is now entrenched. Other aides such as Richard Goodwin agree. RFK simply explodes.
“That’s the most meaningless, worthless thing I’ve ever heard,” he replies angrily. “You people are so
anxious to protect your own asses that you’re afraid to do anything ... We’d be better off if you just quit
and left foreign policy to someone else.”
A Fair Play for Cuba rally is held at Union Square in New York and draws three
thousand people.
April 21, 1962 The headline in today’s Dallas News reads, “Nixon Calls For Decision To
Force Reds Out Of Cuba.” It reports a strident speech which former Vice President Richard
Nixon has made the previous day in Washington, excoriating JFK for being “defensive” on
Castro, demanding a “command decision” to remove the Soviets and calling for a redefinition of
the manifest destiny of the Monroe Doctrine into a doctrine of liberation.
April 13, 1963 From this date through April 21, William Harvey is registered at
a motel in Plantation Key, Florida, probably in room 22 - spending at least three days here.
During this time, a boat is chartered to go to Islamorada, Florida (an island in the Florida Keys),
and phone calls are made to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Perrine (Florida), and Indianapolis.
Also one round-trip plane flight, first class, Miami/Chicago is purchased.
Today, the De Mohrenschildts come to LHO’s apartment on Neely St. for the first time,
apparently to bring an Easter gift for the Oswald child. Mrs. De Mohrenschildt testifies that
while Marina Oswald is showing her the apartment, she sees a rifle with a scope in a closet. Mrs.
De Mohrenschildt then tells her husband, in th e presence of the Oswalds, that there is a rifle in
the closet. George De Mohrenschildt then reportedly asks LHO: “Did you take a pot shot at
Walker by any chance?” LHO reportedly replies that he has only done target shooting. (AATF)
NOTE: LHO has supposedly buried the rifle in the ground after shooting at Walker. Yet, the
inventories of LHO’s belongings, which will later list such miscellany as “Label with King Oscar
Kipper recipes” and “One Texas flag - small”, do not include any rifle-cleaning paraphernalia. The
rifle will be “well oiled” when found in the TSBD building following the assassination.
April 21, 1980: Vance resigns as Secretary of State.
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