Peace Sekhemu.
The ancestors of the Arabs - Abraham's son Ishmael and Isaac's son Esau and their descendants - mainly married Hamites, like Egyptians and Canaanites. Consequently, the Arabs are Hamites. On the other hand, Isaac and Jacob married women from the bloodline of Abraham and Sarah, who were Shemites, which is derived from the Hebrew word “shem,” meaning “name.”
Abraham's bloodline is outlined in Gen. 22:20-29. Nothing is said of Sarah's lineage, but Abraham made it clear that his request for her to "say you are my sister" (Gen. 22:23 and 20:2), wasn't a lie, since she actually was his half-sister. (Abram said to King Abimelech: "Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.")
Whereas children are 50% related to each of unrelated parents, and 100% to each other, the 50% Abraham and Sarah's child Isaac received from each of their parents was mixed with genes of both of them. While it will take a mathematician to work out this equation, when it comes to Ishmael the mathematics is easier since his parents were unrelated - his mother being a Hamite from Egypt (Gen. 25:22). What is important to note, however, is that the percentage Shemite genes in Ishmael's children was halved by 50% from the 50% he received from Abraham. This 50% was again halved in the next generation, and it kept on being halved down the line - since we can assume that his offspring didn't marry into Isaac's family, except perhaps for a very few exceptions. By the 5th generation his descendants only had 3.2% Shemite genes, and it dropped to less than 1% by the 10th generation.
So Syrian President Bashar Assad’s statement - "We are also Shemites" - is therefore technically wrong, although there are exceptions - like himself - in that it is said that his grandmother was Jewish. His territory and northern Iraq was the area where the Jews originated, causing a sector of the population to be closer to Shemites than the Arabs from, say Edom. They will be, for instance, descendants of Aram, the Chaldeans, etc.
That area and part of southern Turkey was also occupied by a nation whose land Israel was to receive, namely the Hittites, and King David did actually manage to conquer them and occupy their territory, causing Jews to dwell there and increase the percentage of Shemite genes in the population. Most of Israel - and a portion of Judah - never returned from their exile to Babylon, to west of the Jordan river, also increasing the Shemite content of the gene pool in the area east of the Jordan. A large number of Arabs were originally Jews who lost their Jewishness when they became Muslims, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
Although some Arabs have Jewish genes, the general Arab populations are Hamites, the descendants of Ham, who was Noah's son. According to Gen. 9:20-24, Noah began to raise grapes after the flood, and got drunk one day. While drunk, he lay naked in his tent. Ham saw his father naked, and told his brothers Shem and Japheth about it. They went into the tent with their faces away from him, and covered him. When Noah awoke, he realized what had happened, and cursed his grandson Canaan (Ham’s son) to be the servants of Shem and Japheth:
“When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him. He said, ‘Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.’” (Gen. 9:24-27)
It is also interesting to note that this verse implies that the descendants of the three brothers will always be linked along the lines God knitted them together by means of Noah's blessings on them. This, of course, applies to Ham as well…the progenitor of the Hamites, who were the original Arabs.
The ancestors of the Arabs - Abraham's son Ishmael and Isaac's son Esau and their descendants - mainly married Hamites, like Egyptians and Canaanites. Consequently, the Arabs are Hamites. On the other hand, Isaac and Jacob married women from the bloodline of Abraham and Sarah, who were Shemites, which is derived from the Hebrew word “shem,” meaning “name.”
Abraham's bloodline is outlined in Gen. 22:20-29. Nothing is said of Sarah's lineage, but Abraham made it clear that his request for her to "say you are my sister" (Gen. 22:23 and 20:2), wasn't a lie, since she actually was his half-sister. (Abram said to King Abimelech: "Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.")
Whereas children are 50% related to each of unrelated parents, and 100% to each other, the 50% Abraham and Sarah's child Isaac received from each of their parents was mixed with genes of both of them. While it will take a mathematician to work out this equation, when it comes to Ishmael the mathematics is easier since his parents were unrelated - his mother being a Hamite from Egypt (Gen. 25:22). What is important to note, however, is that the percentage Shemite genes in Ishmael's children was halved by 50% from the 50% he received from Abraham. This 50% was again halved in the next generation, and it kept on being halved down the line - since we can assume that his offspring didn't marry into Isaac's family, except perhaps for a very few exceptions. By the 5th generation his descendants only had 3.2% Shemite genes, and it dropped to less than 1% by the 10th generation.
So Syrian President Bashar Assad’s statement - "We are also Shemites" - is therefore technically wrong, although there are exceptions - like himself - in that it is said that his grandmother was Jewish. His territory and northern Iraq was the area where the Jews originated, causing a sector of the population to be closer to Shemites than the Arabs from, say Edom. They will be, for instance, descendants of Aram, the Chaldeans, etc.
That area and part of southern Turkey was also occupied by a nation whose land Israel was to receive, namely the Hittites, and King David did actually manage to conquer them and occupy their territory, causing Jews to dwell there and increase the percentage of Shemite genes in the population. Most of Israel - and a portion of Judah - never returned from their exile to Babylon, to west of the Jordan river, also increasing the Shemite content of the gene pool in the area east of the Jordan. A large number of Arabs were originally Jews who lost their Jewishness when they became Muslims, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
Although some Arabs have Jewish genes, the general Arab populations are Hamites, the descendants of Ham, who was Noah's son. According to Gen. 9:20-24, Noah began to raise grapes after the flood, and got drunk one day. While drunk, he lay naked in his tent. Ham saw his father naked, and told his brothers Shem and Japheth about it. They went into the tent with their faces away from him, and covered him. When Noah awoke, he realized what had happened, and cursed his grandson Canaan (Ham’s son) to be the servants of Shem and Japheth:
“When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him. He said, ‘Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave.’” (Gen. 9:24-27)
It is also interesting to note that this verse implies that the descendants of the three brothers will always be linked along the lines God knitted them together by means of Noah's blessings on them. This, of course, applies to Ham as well…the progenitor of the Hamites, who were the original Arabs.