House of Yosef and Yedid

After a long, complicated dream, right before waking, these words were communicated to me:

"Everyone from the House of Yosef dies by Yedid."

This was not a negative thing. The words were positive, supportive and spoken within the context of celebration and dancing, and having a table and place in the Great Hall. I and those at my table were the underdog-types, but we had risen to our place despite the odds and those who worked against us. I was the House Mother (which may pertain to my U5b haplogroup and the research I have done pertaining to Asnat).

Portions in Israel

Interestingly, Midrash assigns a portion to Asnat equal to that of each of the male tribal heads of Israel:

Gen. 43:24–34 relates that Joseph invited his brothers to eat with him when they went down to Egypt to procure food. In the midrashic depiction, this was a family meal in which Joseph’s wife and children also participated. Joseph sat his brothers before him, “from the oldest in the order of his seniority to the youngest in the order of his youth” (v. 33), and brought the portions to the meal. Joseph gave each one, including Benjamin, his portion, and then he took his own portion and gave it to Benjamin. Asenath took her portion and gave it to Benjamin, as did Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus, there were five portions next to Benjamin, as is recorded in v. 34: “But Benjamin’s portion was five times that of anyone else” (Tanhuma, Vayigash 4).

Asnat (as the granddaughter of Jacob and a nameless woman) has an equal portion (of Israel) in her own right distinct from the portions of her husband, her sons and Joseph's brothers. Asnat has inherited what Leah may have feared a son of Dinah's mother (Asnat's mother's mother) may have inherited after all.

Asnat, Granddaughter of Yaakov and Who?

In trying to tease out Asnat's likely matriline genetic haplgroup, I note that Jewish tradition teaches:

Asenath is mentioned in the Torah as “the daughter of Poti-phera” (Gen. 41:45), who was married to Joseph in Egypt. The Rabbis found it difficult to accept that Joseph, who withstood the wiles of Potiphar’s wife and proclaimed his loyalty to the Lord in the palace of Pharaoh, would marry a non-Israelite woman. The question of Asenath’s origins has significant consequences for the standing within the Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons born to Asenath and Joseph.

There are two Rabbinic approaches to the issue of Asenath’s descent. One view presents her as an ethnic Egyptian who converted in order to be married to Joseph. She accepted the belief in the Lord before she was married and raised her children in accordance with the tenets of Judaism. The second approach argues that Asenath was not an Egyptian by descent, but was from the family of Jacob. God directed matters so that she would end up in Egypt, so that Joseph would find a suitable wife from among the members of his own family. Accordingly, Ephraim and Manasseh are worthy descendents, who continue the way of Jacob. 

As we've seen in previous posts, given the ancient genetics of North Africa, it is unlikely that Asnat carried a Native African mtDNA haplogroup, even if she was an Egyptian. In fact, the long 400 year sojourn of the ancient Hebrews in Egypt as told in Torah, highly suggests that the Divine had some very important truth hidden there, in Egypt. This long heavy sojourn in Egypt which came about AFTER the time of Yosef and Asnat has a secret hidden in it - but I will get to that, bear with me.

Rabbis have grappled with the maternal descent of Asnat, suggesting that she was the daughter of Dinah (Dinah herself the daughter of Jacob by Torah and putatively by Leah by the Rabbis' conjecture) who was raped by a non-Hebrew. According to the Rabbi's thinking, the sons of Leah wanted to kill Dinah's half-blood child (Asnat), but instead they shipped her off to Egypt. This doesn't make sense to me. I can't see strong matriarchal Leah allowing her sons to do this to her granddaughter. This explanation by the Rabbis is not congruent with the reality of the strong personalities of the matriarchs. More likely, I think, is that Dinah was indeed the daughter of Jacob and some other unnamed woman, and that, like Sarah did with Hagar and Ishmael, Leah wanted to get rid of Dinah and her unnamed mother. Dinah's rape by a non-Hebrew gave Leah the political opportunity to advance her wish to exile Dinah and her nameless mother. This makes more sense - a woman's jealousy catalyzed Dinah's (and her nameless mother's and ultimately Asnat's) exile to Egypt rather than did male hatred of a helpless female infant (who wouldn't inherit anything anyway, unlike Joseph). Like Sarah didn't want to share her son's inheritance with Ishmael, neither did Leah want to share with Dinah's unnamed mother (who likely had no sons at this point, only a daughter named Dinah) her status as a mother of Israel. Sharing her status with her half-sister Rachel was bad enough. Leah would tolerate her half-sister (maybe - what exactly was the cause of Rachel's long bout with barrenness, an ancient anti-pregnancy potion not really made of Leah's famous mandrakes?), but she wouldn't tolerate another woman (just as Sarah wouldn't tolerate Hagar, although clearly, the Divine brought this nameless woman into the fold as a Matriarch of Israel despite Leah's attempt to exclude her from it). This makes perfect sense.

If my more likely explanation of Asnat's status as a Hebrew daughter of Jacob (and some other unnamed woman) is true, then the mystery opens up in our understanding in an even more revealing way - to enable us to possibly discover the original genetic matrilines of the ancient children of Israel. First, we must recognize, that in Torah, the Divine does not instruct Dinah's mother to return to the Hebrew tribes to be under the thumb of Leah (as was Hagar with Sarah). Instead, Dinah's mother and her daughter Asnat, were allowed, like Joseph, to go to Egypt and to be protected there. While there, Jospeh and Asnat hook up with destiny. Interesting story, this story, I think.

Importantly, given the way Asnat and her unnamed mother have been treated by tradition - the unnamed mother unrecognized as a Matriarch of Israel in her own right to this day (which I hereby rectify on behalf of my ancestors in the name of Asnat) and Asnat as a legitimate daughter of Israel - coupled with the 400 years of slavery in Egypt suffered by the children of Leah who lived in Goshen perhaps because of this lack of recognition, makes me think the Divine was trying to make a strong point, which never actually seemed to penetrate into the ancient thinking of the children of Leah. Even the Divine knows when take on another strategy for working it into recognition, as clearly that exile wasn't working. Even today, the strange ancestry of Moses troubles the minds of the children of Leah as to why Moses, with his strange Hebrew-Egyptian connections (like Asnat), was chosen by the Divine to lead the ancient Hebrews out of Egypt. Asnat was the (adopted?) daughter of a Egyptian priest, as Moses was the (adopted?) son an Egyptian princess. Coincidence or the working of wyrd?

In the counting of the Omer at Tel Shelmesh, Asnat is associated with hod shebetiferet – hidden truth:

Asnat is hidden in Potiphar's home to save her life. She receives this compassion because although she was born from a cruel act, she is a pure soul. Later, in spite of the secrecy around her birth, she discovers ways of honoring all the pieces of her identity. Hod can signify hiddenness, and tiferet can mean truth. Asnat is hod shebetiferet – hidden truth. We are most like Asnat when we open to the secrets of our past and allow our truth to be revealed.

How appropriate this speaks for the Matriarch, Asnat.

Asnat's mtDNA Haplogroup Likely Not Native to Africa

In follow-up to an earlier post suggesting genetic matriarch Asnat likely carried and bequeathed to Bnei Israel a Eurasian-linked North African mtDNA haplogroup as opposed to a Native African mtDNA haplogroup, several studies report that prehistoric North Africans were Caucasoid. North African facial features written in ancient stone support this finding of an ancient Caucasoid type inhabiting North Africa.

The presence of a Caucasoid type in ancient North Africa supports a significant genetic link of this African region with non-African haplogroups, possibly with those haplogroups which back-migrated from Europe into North Africa in the remote past (U5, for example).

There are four major craniofacial types (used to classify skulls by scientific anthropology) existing among modern humans today - they are Australoid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. Wiki tells us that the Caucasoid type refers to

some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia (the Middle East), Central Asia and South Asia. Historically, the term has been used to describe many peoples from these regions, without regard necessarily to skin tone.

The word Caucasian refers to the mountains of eastern Europe and to the peoples that are native to this area. This region lies at the border of Europe and Asia, and is situated between the Black and the Caspian sea. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains. The point of all this is to support that Hebrew matriarch Asnat likely carried a mitochondrial genetic haplogroup which originated in Europe, Asia or the Middle East (as opposed to one native to Africa).

Three Matriarchal Structure of Ancient Israelities Supported by Jewish Tradition and Genetic Science

In follow up to an earlier post suggesting a three "most common ancestor" matriarchal structure for Bnei Yisrael consisting of Leah, Rachel and Asnat (in consideration of the split of Yosef's tribe into the two separate but equal tribes of Ephraim and Menashe), I've found a few pearls of support for this matriarchal structure in both Jewish tradition and modern genetic science.

First, Jewish tradition reveals:

The sefer Tiferes Shlomo al HaTorah in Parshas Vayetze brings a number of answers to the question of how Yaakov was allowed to marry two sisters. One of the answers is that Rachel and Leah were born to Lavan from two different wives and therefore not prohibited to Yaakov. 

In light of this information, we can ask, what were the names of Rachel and Leah's mothers? We may also ask more relevantly, what were the mtDNA haplogroups of these two sisters born of different mothers? It is highly conceivable that Leah and Rachel carried and bequeathed different genetic haplogroup motherlines to Bnei Yisrael.

Second, modern genetic science itself supports three major Jewish clusters:

Jews appear to be variable mixtures of three components (in the regional figure): pink, which is shared by them and Arab speakers; very light blue, which is shared by them and non-Arab West Asians and south Europeans; medium blue, which is centered on southern Europe ...

Jews form three major clusters: one between West Asia and Europe (Ashkenazim and Sephardim); one right in the middle of West Asia (Caucasus Jews and Iranian Jews), and one in the middle of Arabs (Yemenite Jews) ...

This study further uncovers genetic structure that partitions most Jewish samples into Ashkenazi–north African– Sephardi, Caucasus–Middle Eastern, and Yemenite subclusters...

So, my (rather elementary) hypothesis about ancient Israel having three primary motherlines deriving from Leah, Rachel and Asnat may not be off the mark at all. It just makes sense.

The Three Fates: Leah, Rachel & Asnat

The Three Fates (retained in the stories of ancient European tradition) who together weave the tapestry of Destiny ... (Leah, Rachel and Asnat)

Hagar & Bnei Yosef mtDNA Associations

In follow-up to my previous post suggesting mother Sarah could have very likely belonged to mtDNA haplogroup U5, and noting that this haplogroup has evidenced a back-migration(s) into North Africa in the remote past, I thought it worthwhile to investigate mtDNA haplogroups native to Egypt given Abraham's relationship with the Egyptian princess Hagar and given Yosef's children's matrilineal descent through his Hebrew-Egyptian wife, Asnat¹.

Wiki informs us regarding native Egyptian genetics:

Attempts to extract ancient DNA or aDNA from Ancient Egyptian remains have yielded little or no success until recently although the results continue to be hotly debated. Climatic conditions and the mummification process could hasten the deterioration of DNA. Contamination from handling and intrusion from microbes have also created obstacles to recovery of Ancient DNA. Consequently most DNA studies have been carried out on modern Egyptian populations with the intent of learning about the influences of historical migrations on the population of Egypt. However, there was one notable study of ancient mummies of the 12th Dynasty, performed by Paabo and Di Rienzo, which identified multiple lines of descent, including some from sub-Saharan Africa.

and further

Other studies have shown that modern Egyptians have genetic affinities primarily with populations of Eurasia, North and Northeast Africa, and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern and European populations. Studies done on ancient Egyptians' remains have shown uniformity and homogeneity among the samples, and cranial/limb ratio similarity with populations from North Africa, Somalia, Nubia, Southwest Asia and Europe. Blood typing and DNA sampling on ancient Egyptian mummies is scant; however, blood typing of dynastic mummies found ABO frequencies to be most similar to modern Egyptians and some also to Northern Haratin populations. ABO blood group distribution shows that the Egyptians form a sister group to North African populations, including Berbers, Nubians and Canary Islanders.

Some genetic studies done on modern Egyptians suggest that most do not have close relations to most tropical Africans, and other studies show that they are mostly related to other North Africans, and to a lesser extent southern European/Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations. A 2004 mtDNA study of upper Egyptians from Gurna found a genetic ancestral heritage to modern Northeast Africans, characterized by a high M1 haplotype frequency, and another study links Egyptians in general with people from modern Eritrea and Ethiopia. Though there has been much debate of the origins of haplogroup M1 a recent 2007 study had concluded that M1 has West Asia origins not a Sub Saharan African origin. Origin A 2003 Y chromosome study was performed by Lucotte on modern Egyptians, with haplotypes V, XI, and IV being most common. Haplotype V is common in Berbers and has a low frequency outside Africa. Haplotypes V, XI, and IV are all supra-Saharan/Horn African haplotypes, and they are far more dominant in Egyptians than in Near Eastern or European groups.

Historically there have been differing accounts of the appearance of ancient Egyptians as compared to people of other nations. Egyptologists generally consider the ancient Egyptians to have been a continuum from the lighter northern population of Lower Egypt to the darker Upper Egyptians. A number of supporting studies have therefore been undertaken on craniometric patterns and skeletal remains. The results have varied, and interpretation has been complicated by conflict over the baselines to be used in analysing this data.

So, while none of this is conclusive and is only speculative, it seems plausible to suggest that Native Egyptian Hagar may have been from a more directly Native Egyptian M1 mtDNA, haplogroup (or alternatively, Fulani L2a, another Native Egyptian mtDNA haplogroup), while Yosef's Hebrew-Egyptian wife Asnat may have been of a mtDNA haplogroup associated with Egypt less directly through Hebrew-backmigration linked North African Berber U5b (my mtDNA haplogroup).

More on Ancient Native Egyptian DNA

¹Yosef's tribe was split into Ephraim and Menashe, making their mother Asnat a matriarch of the Hebrews along with Leah and Rachel.