Jews & Arabs: Abraham's children

Abraham's life left a legacy in many different ways, but have you ever stopped to consider the legacy of his Y chromosome?

The Y chromosome is unique to men. Fathers pass it on to their sons—so, according to the Bible, Abraham would've passed it on to Isaac, then to Jacob, whose descendants gave rise to the Jewish nation. Abraham also passed his Y chromosome to Ishmael, through whom Arab nations have come.

A recent study of Y-chromosomes in Jewish and Arab men strongly supports the biblical account that they all descended from one man. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), revealed remarkable similarity between the Y chromosomes of Jewish and Arab male populations. These results prompted one of the researchers to say: 'Jews and Arabs are all really children of Abraham'.