How can persons consider themselves semitic?

Question

alot of anti-semitic talk has been going on for quite sometime. although, in order to be truly semitic these people would have to trace themselves back to the time of shem (son of noah). how can this be?

Answer 1

The descendants of Shem bring us to Abram (Abraham) and his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.

Anti-Semitism has long been associated with being anti-Jewish, but technically, both the Israelites and the Ishmaelites are both semitic peoples. Of all of Shem's descendants, these are the only ones that are still identifiable ethnically.

However, Genesis 10 gives you the breakdown of the children of Shem, Ham, and Japeth, the three sons of Noah. Other Genesis references give you the geographic parts of the world where the descendants of those three moved to.

Answer 2

I know what you are trying to say. However, there are many people who consider themselves to be "Semitic" without literally being able to trace themselves back to Shem. The Jews and Arabs are two such ethnic groups. It is a part of their tradition. There are many languages that are considered to be "semitic"--Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ugartic, and others. It is their tradition that they descended from Noah's son, Shem, whether they can realistically trace it back or not. According to the Bible, the lineage can be traced back through Abraham to Shem and Noah.

Answer 3

It is believed that Jews and Middle Easterners are descended through Shem from Esau or Ishmael.
Now for a person to trace their exact family that far back would probably be hard.

Answer 4

You know, I've wondered that myself. I highly doubt whether anyone had the foresight, in those long-ago times to preserve a tissue sample from Shem to compare DNA.