"A frequent question asked of creationists is, “Where did the different human races come from?”
...I recently thought of a new way to illustrate the origin of different people groups using the 12 Tribes of Israel as an example.
When dealing with different people groups, geneticists often calculate a number called the ‘inbreeding coefficient’ and talk about ‘identity by descent’ because every person has inherited multiple identical sections of DNA from both sides of their family. This happens because, if everyone was to trace their family tree back in time, they would eventually come to the same ancestor or set of ancestors in both the mother and father’s side of the family. This can be shown using simple mathematics.
The number of ancestors going back in time, coupled with many people not having children forward in time, coupled with the effects of recombination, coupled with the fact that people historically have interbred mostly within their own people group, means that there has been a significant amount of inbreeding in every population.
This is the reason that people from different people groups don’t look the same. Many genes for traits like height, head shape or even eye color don’t necessarily show strong inheritance patterns. Yet, enough inbreeding has occurred in all people groups that strongly associated traits often exist that can be used to roughly distinguish one set of people from another.
This is not always easy to do, however, and one can find almost all traits in almost all populations. In fact, when looking at the underlying genes, there are about 10 million variations in the human genome that are found in all world populations. These are not found at the same frequency in all populations, however, and this gives rise to some of our ideas about ‘races’. We have to be careful, however, when trying to assign ‘race’ to a person, for modern geneticists have rejected the entire notion.
From the Genesis chronogenealogies, we have a detailed family history from Noah through Abraham, and then to Jacob and his 12 sons. There is one person in this list, however, who serves as a significant ancestor to the future Jewish nation: Terah, the father of Abram. Terah was also the father of Sarai, though not by Abram’s mother (Genesis 20:12), Nahor, and Haran. It turns out that the four children of Terah are all ancestors of the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Children each inherit half of the DNA carried by each parent. Thus, a child will carry a quarter of each grandparent’s set of DNA, one-sixteenth of each great-grandparent’s DNA, etc. Abram was 50% identical to Terah. So was his half-sister Sarai. Their child Isaac should have been 25% of each grandparent, but because his parents were both children of Terah, Isaac was 50% identical to his one grandfather (obtaining 25% of Terah’s genome from each parent). Because of inbreeding, he had a similar genetic status as a child of Terah.
The only difference is that Isaac would have inherited identical copies of parts of some chromosomes from his parents. Usually, a person inherits two versions of the human genome, one from the mother and one from the father. In Isaac’s case, however, some of that DNA inherited from Sarai was identical to that inherited from Abram, because they had, in turn, inherited identical parts of Terah’s genome. In those places (about 25% of his genome), any recessive traits were fully expressed.
In Israel’s family tree, multiple generations intermarried. The genealogy is complex. How can one calculate the amount of inbreeding? By simply listing each line from Terah to the 12 sons of Israel
and figuring that ½ of Terah’s DNA is lost each generation
In fact, we should expect patriarchal societies like this to be inbred, and there are other indications in the Bible. For example, the endemic gigantism in various groups living in Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest may have been due to a concentration of some gene(s) associated with gigantism in the population through inbreeding. There is also evidence of polydactyly (extra fingers and toes, a recessive mutation that generally only appears due to inbreeding) in one of the giants killed in David’s time (Numbers 13:28), and there is abundant testimony of left-handedness in the tribe of Benjamin (was this training or genetics?).
The ‘12 Tribes of Israel’ scenario of inbreeding is an excellent example of what we expect to occur thousands of times across the world as people spread out from Babel, following population stratification resulting from the confusion of languages (Genesis 11:1–9). They are not exceptional in the level of inbreeding demonstrable from their family tree, nor are they exceptional in the degree of outbreeding with the closely and distantly related peoples in their area. They are, however, a mirror of the development of the many different people groups on the earth today, and the only reason any ‘racial’ features exist in a population (and it is not difficult to think of many different traits associated with people across the world) is due to inbreeding in those populations in historical times." CMI
...I recently thought of a new way to illustrate the origin of different people groups using the 12 Tribes of Israel as an example.
The number of ancestors going back in time, coupled with many people not having children forward in time, coupled with the effects of recombination, coupled with the fact that people historically have interbred mostly within their own people group, means that there has been a significant amount of inbreeding in every population.
This is the reason that people from different people groups don’t look the same. Many genes for traits like height, head shape or even eye color don’t necessarily show strong inheritance patterns. Yet, enough inbreeding has occurred in all people groups that strongly associated traits often exist that can be used to roughly distinguish one set of people from another.
This is not always easy to do, however, and one can find almost all traits in almost all populations. In fact, when looking at the underlying genes, there are about 10 million variations in the human genome that are found in all world populations. These are not found at the same frequency in all populations, however, and this gives rise to some of our ideas about ‘races’. We have to be careful, however, when trying to assign ‘race’ to a person, for modern geneticists have rejected the entire notion.
From the Genesis chronogenealogies, we have a detailed family history from Noah through Abraham, and then to Jacob and his 12 sons. There is one person in this list, however, who serves as a significant ancestor to the future Jewish nation: Terah, the father of Abram. Terah was also the father of Sarai, though not by Abram’s mother (Genesis 20:12), Nahor, and Haran. It turns out that the four children of Terah are all ancestors of the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Children each inherit half of the DNA carried by each parent. Thus, a child will carry a quarter of each grandparent’s set of DNA, one-sixteenth of each great-grandparent’s DNA, etc. Abram was 50% identical to Terah. So was his half-sister Sarai. Their child Isaac should have been 25% of each grandparent, but because his parents were both children of Terah, Isaac was 50% identical to his one grandfather (obtaining 25% of Terah’s genome from each parent). Because of inbreeding, he had a similar genetic status as a child of Terah.
The only difference is that Isaac would have inherited identical copies of parts of some chromosomes from his parents. Usually, a person inherits two versions of the human genome, one from the mother and one from the father. In Isaac’s case, however, some of that DNA inherited from Sarai was identical to that inherited from Abram, because they had, in turn, inherited identical parts of Terah’s genome. In those places (about 25% of his genome), any recessive traits were fully expressed.
In Israel’s family tree, multiple generations intermarried. The genealogy is complex. How can one calculate the amount of inbreeding? By simply listing each line from Terah to the 12 sons of Israel
In fact, we should expect patriarchal societies like this to be inbred, and there are other indications in the Bible. For example, the endemic gigantism in various groups living in Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest may have been due to a concentration of some gene(s) associated with gigantism in the population through inbreeding. There is also evidence of polydactyly (extra fingers and toes, a recessive mutation that generally only appears due to inbreeding) in one of the giants killed in David’s time (Numbers 13:28), and there is abundant testimony of left-handedness in the tribe of Benjamin (was this training or genetics?).
The ‘12 Tribes of Israel’ scenario of inbreeding is an excellent example of what we expect to occur thousands of times across the world as people spread out from Babel, following population stratification resulting from the confusion of languages (Genesis 11:1–9). They are not exceptional in the level of inbreeding demonstrable from their family tree, nor are they exceptional in the degree of outbreeding with the closely and distantly related peoples in their area. They are, however, a mirror of the development of the many different people groups on the earth today, and the only reason any ‘racial’ features exist in a population (and it is not difficult to think of many different traits associated with people across the world) is due to inbreeding in those populations in historical times." CMI
Therefore is the name of it called Babel;
because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth:
and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation;
Genesis 11:9, Acts 17:26
