HEBRON, Ky. (BP) — One question puzzled Answers in Genesis researcher and biologist Nathaniel T. Jeanson for decades: What was going on in pre-Columbus America before Europeans arrived?
In finding answers, he traced his ancestry to Joktan, a great-grandson of Noah’s son Shem, introduced in Genesis 10:25. Jeanson points to a global generational family tree anchored in analyses of the Y chromosome.
“We can find a very clear, generation-by-generation echo of Genesis 10 and of Noah at the base of this tree. So that any male who gets a Y chromosome test, any family that has a male relative who gets a Y chromosome test, I can trace their ancestry back to specific sons of Noah,” Jeanson said. “What we discovered was a generation-by-generation family tree for global humanity, and this is based on DNA.
“This is now a tool for every single family line around the globe, in theory.”
In “Traced: Human DNA’s Big Surprise,” his book released in March, Jeanson uses research papers he co-authored, along with previously published data and historical accounts in reaching his conclusions.
The very nature of DNA enabled Jeanson’s work.
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“The principle behind this involved two concepts: (1) DNA naturally records a record of our ancestry. (2) Because the Y chromosome changes (mutates) every generation, DNA also records the passage of generations — the passage of time,” he explained in an email to Baptist Press. “Ancestry and time are the two key elements found in traditional family trees; the fact that DNA can also record these two elements of history allows it to be used as a surrogate for a family tree.”
Armed with a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University, Jeanson augmented science with evidence such as the established history of peoples and regions of the globe, archaeology and linguistics.
“It is my work, but it’s based on a lot of published data that’s out there,” Jeanson said. “I’m taking existing data and reanalyzing it, primarily, as a method, and then lining it up with historical events that we know. I did have a number of reviewers who were checking the work, not authors.”
Jeanson describes Traced as a testament to the Bible’s veracity.
“This book is a very loud, strong confirmation of the biblical anthropology, which, that’s the heart, to me, of the Gospel,” Jeanson said. “That is one ancestor, one couple basically, ancestor for all of us who sins, and now we’re all sinners as a result. And of course, many of my opponents in science would say, ‘There’s no such thing as Adam and Eve, there was never just a single pair, there was always a population.’ Which if that’s true, was there a literal fall. Was there a literal Adam? … If there was never one man in the beginning, can one man save?
