The following information that contains outside quotes, does not represent the position or belief of Firm Foundation or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is information for you to read, study and pray about. The most important information comes through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.
There were 3 sons of Noah. Ham, (Generally African) Shem, (Generally Caucasian/Jewish/Arab) and Japeth (Generally Asian) That means every human born on this earth has to be a descendant of one of those three sons or a mixture of each.
Japheth
Shem
Ham
Significant Events: The land was discovered by Egyptus (Abr. 1:23–25). Abraham went to Egypt (Gen. 12:10–20; Abr. 2:21–25). Joseph was sold into Egypt, became a ruler, and saved his family from famine (Gen. 37; 39–46). Jacob’s descendants lived in Egypt (Gen. 47; Ex. 1; 12:40). The daughter of Pharaoh found the baby Moses in the river and reared him (Ex. 2:1–10). Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt (Ex. 3–14). Mary, Joseph, and Jesus went to Egypt for a while to escape from Herod (Matt. 2:13–15, 19–21). In the last days, the Egyptians will know the Lord, and the Lord will bless Egypt (Isa. 19:20–25). (See BD Egypt; Nile.) LDS Bible Dictionary
A Strange Story Explained: Temple Symbolism and the Garment of Noah
By Jeffrey M. Bradshaw · January 24, 2013
As the Book of Moses highlights Adam’s diligence in offering sacrifice when he entered the fallen world, so the book of Genesis describes Noah’s first action on the renewed earth as the building of an altar for burnt offerings. Most of the significant elements in the Garden of Eden are present in Noah’s garden: a prominent mountain, fruit whose eating leads to important consequences, and a place of holiness where unauthorized entry is forbidden. This holy place becomes the scene of a “Fall” and consequent judgment. Often, the instigator of this “Fall” is wrongfully seen to be Noah, reportedly succumbing to the intoxicating influence of wine from his vineyard. However, the scriptures omit any hint of wrongdoing by Noah and instead reserve all condemnation for his grandson Canaan, who is likened in the Zohar to the “primordial serpent” who was cursed by God in the Garden of Eden. What was the sin? If we have understood the situation in Eden correctly, it was a perfect parallel to the transgression of Adam and Eve. Without proper invitation, Ham approached the curtains of the “tent of Yaweh,” and looked at the glory of God that was “uncovered within”-literally, “in the midst of” -the tent, in what might have been part of an effort to steal Noah’s priesthood garment and usurp his authority.
The Prophet Joseph Smith asserted that Noah “was not drunk, but in a vision.” According to Koler and Greenspahn: “This explains why Shem and [Japheth] refrained from looking at Noah even after they had covered him, significantly ahorannt [Heb. “backward” occurs elsewhere with regard to avoidance of looking directly at God in the course of revelation.” https://latterdaysaintmag.com/article-1-12120/
41-6: Why did God allow Joseph to marry an Egyptian-a daughter from the line of Ham?
A study published in 2017 described the extraction and analysis of DNA from 151 mummified ancient Egyptian individuals, whose remains were recovered from Abusir el-Meleq in Beni Suef in Middle Egypt.[5] The study was able to measure the mitochondrial DNA of 90 individuals, and it showed that “the Ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians, who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times…
It is now largely agreed that Dynastic Egyptians were indigenous to the Nile area. About 5,000 years ago, the Sahara area dried out, and part of the indigenous Saharan population retreated east towards the Nile Valley. In addition, peoples from the Middle East entered the Nile Valley, bringing with them wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and possibly cattle.[29] Dynastic Egyptians referred to their country as “The Two Lands”. During the Predynastic period (about 4800 to 4300BC), the Merimde culture flourished in the northern part of Egypt (Lower Egypt).[30] This culture, among others, has links to the Levant in the Middle East.[31][32] The pottery of the later Buto Maadi culture, best known from the site at Maadi near Cairo, also shows connections to the southern Levant.[33] In the southern part of Egypt (Upper Egypt), the predynastic Badarian culture was followed by the Naqada culture. These people seem to be more closely related to the Nubians than to northern Egyptians.[34][35]
An examination of ancient Egyptian skeletons and skulls in 2007 also suggests that there was in-migration to the Abydos region of the Nile Valley, particularly during the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom.[36]
Near-Eastern genetic affinity of Egyptian mummies
See also: Egypt-Mesopotamia relations
Shared drift and mixture analysis of ancient Egyptian mummies with other ancient and modern and populations. The affinity is strongest (in red) with ancient populations of the Near East.
A study published in 2017 described the extraction and analysis of DNA from 151 mummified ancient Egyptian individuals, whose remains were recovered from Abusir el-Meleq in the Cairo Governate.[37][38] The area of Abusir el-Meleq, near El Fayum, was inhabited from at least 3250 BCE until about 700 CE.[39] The scientists said that obtaining well-preserved, uncontaminated DNA from mummies has been a problem for the field and that these samples provided “the first reliable data set obtained from ancient Egyptians using high-throughput DNA sequencing methods”.
The study was able to measure the mitochondrial DNA of 90 individuals, and it showed that the mitochondrial DNA composition of Egyptian mummies has shown a high level of affinity with the DNA of the populations of the Near East.[37][38] A shared drift and mixture analysis of the DNA of these ancient Egyptian mummies shows that the connection is strongest with ancient populations from the Levant, the Near East and Anatolia, and to a lesser extent modern populations from the Near East and the Levant.[38] In particular the study finds “that ancient Egyptians are most closely related to Neolithic and Bronze Age samples in the Levant, as well as to Neolithic Anatolian populations”.[39]
Genome-wide data could only be successfully extracted from three of these individuals. Of these three, the Y-chromosome haplogroups of two individuals could be assigned to the Middle-Eastern haplogroup J, and one to haplogroup E1b1b1 common in North Africa. The absolute estimates of sub-Saharan African ancestry in these three individuals ranged from 6 to 15%, which is significantly lower than the level of sub-Saharan African ancestry in the modern Egyptians from Abusir Elmeleq, who “range from 14 to 21%.” The study’s authors cautioned that the mummies may be unrepresentative of the Ancient Egyptian population as a whole.[6]
Overall the mummies studied were closer genetically to Near Eastern people than the modern Egyptian population, which has a greater proportion of genes coming from sub-Saharan Africa after the Roman period. These, peoples, however, differed from the pre-Roman ancient Egyptians.[37][38]
The data suggest a high level of genetic intereraction with the Near East since ancient times, probably going back to Prehistoric Egypt: “Our data seem to indicate close admixture and affinity at a much earlier date, which is unsurprising given the long and complex connections between Egypt and the Middle East. These connections date back to Prehistory and occurred at a variety of scales, including overland and maritime commerce, diplomacy, immigration, invasion and deportation”[40][38]
Contemporary genetic studies show much greater levels of sub-Saharan African ancestry in the current-day populations of southern as opposed to northern Egypt.[41]
DNA LINKS ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WITH BIBLE STORY OF NOAH’S DESCENDANTS
DNA LINKS ANCIENT EGYPTIANS WITH BIBLE STORY OF NOAH’S DESCENDANTS
By Author Unknown
How well do you remember your Bible stories? You might know the many stories of Noah, but a recent discovery by researchers has added a modern twist to the story of Noah’s descendants.
Germany’s University of Tuebingen as well as the Max Planck Institute formed a joint research team to extensively study ancient Egyptian mummies. The researchers have determined that DNA from mummies in Abusir el Meleq, Egypt matches the DNA of people from Anatolia in the Near East (during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods), as well as people in the Eastern Mediterranean. In other words, the DNA of ancient Egyptian mummies does not match the DNA of modern Egyptian people.
The researchers studied 151 mummies dating from 1388 BCE to 426 CE, obtaining DNA samples from 90 of the mummies. The researchers sampled mitochondrial DNA. The other type of DNA, called nuclear DNA, is typically sampled, but in very old specimens, nuclear DNA is no longer present in the cell. Conversely, mitochondrial DNA comes from another part of the cell outside the nucleus, and is usually present in very old specimens .
So what does this mean? It likely means that the findings match the Bible’s account in the book of Genesis regarding Noah’s descendants.
In an interview with The Christian Post, the research team said, “We found the ancient Egyptian samples falling distinct from modern Egyptians, and closer towards Near Eastern and European samples. In contrast, modern Egyptians are shifted towards sub Saharan African populations.”
Up until now, the common school of thought was that ancient Egyptians came from northern Africa.
Some historians said the Nubians gave rise to the Egyptians, saying that their tomb paintings were so similar that there had to be a link there. In the 1800s, Professor of Egyptology at the University of London, Flinders Petrie lectured on the Nubian queen Aohmes Nefertari, whom he described as the “divine ancestress of the XVlllth dynasty” of pharaohs.
Other scholars of the “Afrocentric” theory claimed that Tutankhamen and his parents and grandparents were black, and have protested the depiction of the young pharaoh’s facial features. Cleopatra was the last pharaoh ruler in Greece’s dynasty in Egypt. Her race has long been a source of frequent debate .
Some say she was black, while others say that it only makes sense that she was Greek and Persian, based on the fact that she descended from the Greek Macedonian family of Ptole my. Yet it has been speculated that Cleopatra ‘s mother and her half-sister Arsinoe IV were black.
Furthermore, the Great Sphinx of Giza has been described as having a Negroid face. Ancient Egyptians also referred to their homeland as kmt (modern Kemet) which mainstream scholars translate as “the black place” or “the black land”. The alternate opinion is that it refers to the fertile black soil of the Nile river delta.
In more recent years, what has come to be known in sciehtific circles as the “black hypothesis ” of Egypt has been the subject of profound controversy and disagreement. Many scientists stated that the ancient Egyptians were a people indigenous to the Nile Valley. As early as the 1800s, some historians said that the opinion that the Africans gave rise to ancient Egypt is “an error long accepted as the truth.”
Nearly 100 years later, the mummy of Ramses II was amazingly preserved and was taken to France in 1975 for further preservation. Scientists divulged that the mummy had fair skin and wavy red hair.
Genesis 10:5-6 states “From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language. The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.” Ham was the son of Noah, and Ham’s sons spread out and settled these various regions.
Genesis states that Ham’s sons Mizraim and Cush settled in Egypt and Africa, respectively, which means that the Bible says that two distinct, separate nations were formed.
Therefore, the Bible states that early peoples of Egypt actually came from the Near East (Mesopotamia region) and that Ham was their ancestor. The Bible also says these same early Egyptian people were the first Egyptian dynasty – the first pharaohs.
The results confirm what the Bible has said all along. The lead researcher on the study, Johannes Krause, said that the ancient Egyptian mummies they studied indeed looked much more like Near Eastern ancient peoples and had nearly zero sub-Saharan African ancestral linkage. In fact, the DNA analysis suggested that the mummies were more closely related to Europeans than to modern Egyptian people.
Regarding the theory that Africans founded ancient Egypt, the study results suggest that Africans didn’t enter the Egyptian gene pool until the Roman period. Very interesting indeed!
DNA discovery reveals genetic history of ancient Egyptians
By Thomas Page, CNN Updated 9:46 AM ET, Fri June 23, 2017
(CNN)Ancient Egyptians and their modern counterparts share less in common than you might think. That is, at least genetically, a team of scientists have found.
Rare mummy DNA has revealed clues about the relatives of ancient Egyptians
Why did God allow Joseph to marry an Egyptian-a daughter from the line of Ham?
“Pharaoh called Joseph by the name Tzafnat-Pa‘neach and gave him as his wife Asenath the daughter of Poti-Fera priest of On.“-Genesis 41:45
I want to point out something obvious about Joseph’s wife Asenath I think many of us have a tendency to skip over without giving it much thought.
Joseph’s wife is considered to be an Egyptian.
She is a Gentile.
And when I say she is a Gentile, I don’t mean she was a Gentile who switched her allegiance from Egypt’s gods to YHVH.
She retained her full Egyptian identity.
There is no evidence she ever converted.
In fact, she was the daughter of a priest who was of the Temple of On.
On was the city of the Sun God.
The purpose of the Temple of On was to pay homage to the highest Egyptian deity called Re (or later Atum-Re).
On would later be called Heliopolis, meaning the city of the sun.
Thus Joseph married the heathen daughter of the priest of the Sun God!
Why did God allow this?
In the story of Dinah and Shechem, we saw how God orchestrated circumstances to prevent intermarriage from occurring between Jacob’s family and the Hivites.
Back in Genesis 39, we also saw how God thwarted Judah’s intentions to carry on his family line through his Canaanite wife by having Judah unknowingly sleep with his Semitic daughter-in law Tamar who disguised herself as a prostitute.
So why was it acceptable in God’s sight for Joseph to marry an Egyptian who was of the line of Ham and didn’t pledge allegiance to YHVH?
In fact, given her status as the daughter of the Sun god’s priest, it would have been unimaginable for her to become a Hebrew.
Some Christians say this points to Jesus marrying His Gentile Bride which symbolizes the Christian church.
However, if this typology is to be correct, then Asenath would have to have converted and pledged allegiance to YHVH.
There is no evidence of her doing that.
It seems like the rabbis had a real problem with this and Jewish scholarship through the ages has largely denied the Egyptian racial origin of Joseph’s wife.
“The disturbing fact with regard to the wife of Joseph was her descent from Ham.“-Professor V. Aptowitzer of Hebrew Union College
Many Jewish legends actually say that Asenath was the offspring of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and resulted from Shechem’s seduction as told in Genesis chapter 34.
However, I believe the answer might lie in the findings of modern scholarship.
Do you remember how I mentioned earlier that Egypt at this time was under subjugation by Semitic conquerers known as the Hyskos or Shepherd kings?
Well, the Egyptian capital of the Shepherd Kings, Avaris, was in the region of Goshen where the Israelites dwelled and On the city of the sun god (or Heliopolis) where Potiphar and his daughter resided was located apparently just a stone’s throw away.
My point is could not Potiphera and his daughter, Joseph’s wife, also be members of the Semitic Shepherd Kings?
In fact, the Jewish historian Josephus believed that the Hyksos were “the children of Israel”.
So who knows, maybe Joseph married a Hebrew after all.
If this theory is true, it harmonizes with past Scripture and shows that again God orchestrated circumstances to keep His Semitic line pure as he did with the Shechem incident and the incident with Judah and Tamar.
