A Discussion of DNA
This is going to be fun and frustrating at the same time. For some they will understand and accept that in everything of God's creation exists His DNA.
Livescience.com provides the most non-scientific language definition of DNA. It states, “Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a molecule that contains the instructions an organism needs to develop, live and reproduce. These instructions are found inside every cell, and are passed down from parents to their children.” Basically, DNA is the life molecule that provides the programming that makes everything work in the physical body.
Livescience.com describes DNA as follows.
DNA structure
DNA is made up of molecules called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar group and a nitrogen base. The four types of nitrogen bases are adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The order of these bases is what determines DNA's instructions, or genetic code. Human DNA has around 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).
Similar to the way the order of letters in the alphabet can be used to form a word, the order of nitrogen bases in a DNA sequence forms genes, which in the language of the cell, tells cells how to make proteins. Another type of nucleic acid, ribonucleic acid, or RNA, translates genetic information from DNA into proteins.
Nucleotides are attached together to form two long strands that spiral to create a structure called a double helix. If you think of the double helix structure as a ladder, the phosphate and sugar molecules would be the sides, while the bases would be the rungs. The bases on one strand pair with the bases on another strand: adenine pairs with thymine, and guanine pairs with cytosine.
DNA molecules are long — so long, in fact, that they can't fit into cells without the right packaging. To fit inside cells, DNA is coiled tightly to form structures we call chromosomes. Each chromosome contains a single DNA molecule. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, which are found inside the cell's nucleus.
DNA discovery
DNA was first observed by a German biochemist named Frederich Miescher in 1869. But for many years, researchers did not realize the importance of this molecule. It was not until 1953 that James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin figured out the structure of DNA — a double helix — which they realized could carry biological information.
Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Franklin was not included in the award, although her work was integral to the research. [Related: Unraveling the Human Genome: 6 Molecular Milestones]
DNA sequencing
DNA sequencing is technology that allows researchers to determine the order of bases in a DNA sequence. The technology can be used to determine the order of bases in genes, chromosomes, or an entire genome. In 2000, researchers completed the first full sequence of the human genome, according to a report by the National Human Genome Research Institute.
DNA testing
A person's DNA contains information about their heritage, and can sometimes reveal whether they are at risk for certain diseases. DNA tests, or genetic tests, are used for a variety of reasons, including to diagnose genetic disorders, to determine whether a person is a carrier of a genetic mutation that they could pass on to their children, and to examine whether a person is at risk for a genetic disease. For instance, mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are known to increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and analysis of these genes in a genetic test can reveal whether a person has these mutations.
Genetic test results can have implications for a person's health, and the tests are often provided along with genetic counseling to help individuals understand the results and consequences of the test.
There are now many at-home genetic testing kits, but some of them are unreliable. Also, NBC News reports that people should be careful with these kits, since the tests are essentially handing over a person's genetic code to a stranger.
New research on DNA
DNA research has lead to some interesting, and important findings in the last few years. For example, a 2017 study published in the journal Science found that random mistakes in DNA, not heredity or environmental factors, accounts for two-thirds of cancer mutations in cells.
Yourgenome.org provides us with a layman review of the actual DNA structure.
DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is a long molecule that contains our unique genetic code. Like a recipe book it holds the instructions for making all the proteins in our bodies.
Your genome? is made of a chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA for short.
DNA contains four basic building blocks or ‘bases?’: adenine? (A), cytosine? (C), guanine? (G) and thymine? (T).
The order, or sequence, of these bases form the instructions in the genome.
DNA is a two-stranded molecule.
Image credit: Genome Research Limited
DNA has a unique ‘double helix’ shape, like a twisted ladder
Each strand is composed of long sequences of the four bases, A, C, G and T.
The bases on one strand of the DNA molecule pair together with complementary? bases on the opposite strand of DNA to form the ‘rungs’ of the DNA ‘ladder’.
The bases always pair together in the same way, A with T, C with G.
Each base pair is joined together by hydrogen bonds?.
Each strand of DNA has a beginning and an end, called 5’ (five prime) and 3’ (three prime) respectively.
The two strands run in the opposite direction (antiparallel) to each other so that one runs 5’ to 3’ and one runs 3’ to 5’, they are called the sense strand and the antisense strand, respectively.
The strands are separated during DNA replication?.
The human genome is made of 3.2 billion bases of DNA but other organisms have different genome sizes.
So how does this all this discussion about DNA try us back to God.
Prior to 1953 many theories continued to be developed when two scientists began the study to unlock the genetic mystery of life. The first building block map describing life was established by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. Through their now famous model of the double helix and the patterns of information held in the DNA molecule, the door was opened to the entire science of identifying individuals on the basis of their unique genetic characteristics. Whether it is eye color, hair color, to gender and tendencies toward certain conditions of health and disease, the codes that determine how our bodies appear and function are held in the blueprint of our genetic code. Since Watson and Crick’s discovery, the science of matching segments of DNA to determine paternity, identify missing persons, and link individuals to a specific crime has become keystone in crime-scene analysis worldwide.
Backing up in time a bit to the fourth Century, we find that scholars have openly acknowledged the editing and deletion of material that was used to establish Church doctrine in 325 C.E. by the panel convened to establish such Church doctrine.1 We find that under the direction of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the individuals who made up the Council of Nice were presented with a daunting task of taking centuries of disparate religious works and converting them into a single document that would be meaningful to the people of the region of their time. Remaining with us today in the form of one of the most powerful and controversial books in the history of mankind and the world, the Holy Bible. In writing the Holy Bible, the Council of Nice found that much of the materials they were presented were redundant and poorly written, with overlapping versions and repeated stories. As a result, the Council recommended that at least 45 documents be removed from their task. Within the 20th Century, many of the books that were removed by the Council during their edits have been recovered, translated and made available to the general public.
One of the most significant archeologist finds of the 20th Century was the discovery of the ancient library hidden in caves above the Dead Sea shores – The Dead Sea Scrolls. Over a ten year span from 1946 to 1956, more than 22,000 fragments of animal hide, copper, and papyrus manuscripts were pieced together, producing about 900 scrolls and revealing the original version of such Old Testament books as Genesis, Isaiah, and the words of Moses. Hershel Shanks, editor of the pioneering journal Biblical Archaeological Review, commented on the significance of the find, stating, “Over 200 biblical manuscripts were hidden in the Qumran caves, some dramatically different from accounts in the Bible.”2 It was not until these scrolls were available for public viewing that the information became to the public at large.
Two years before the finding the Dead Sea Scrolls, another library of ancient writings was discovered. In December 1945, two brothers found a collection of scrolls near the Nile River village of Nag Hammandi, Egypt, which immediately began to change the way we thought of early Christianity. Now kept by the Coptic Museum in Cairo, these writings provide surprising insight into ancient Gnostic and early Christian traditions.
When we consider these two archaeological libraries together they offer perhaps the most complex view of the ancient world and early Christian traditions. They provide us with the ability to fill in the gaps and inconsistencies of the traditional scripture (Holy Bible) written by the Council of Nice. The purpose of bringing this information to our attention is to illustrate the fact that, through the loss of these and similar bodies of information, universal principles that give great meaning to our modern world have been forgotten and prevented us from coming to know about the beginning of life.
Going back even further about 5,000 years or so, we may read the words written by Hebrew scholars precisely, as well as detailed, recording our origins. Through these words, we are given insight into the creation of the universe, the formation of the earth, and finally the origins of our bodies. The best known source and one most reflected upon today of Hebrew knowledge is the collection of mystical writings known collectively as the Kahbalah. While it is referred to by a single name – Kahbalah – it is actually a collection of writings that form the bulk of Hebrew esoteric tradition. The most important writings contained in the Kabalah are believed to be the Zohar (the Book of Radiance), the Midrash (the Book of Illumination), and the Sepher Yetzirah (the Book of Formation) and considered the oldest and perhaps most mysterious aspect of the writings. Jewish scholars believe that the Sepher Yetzirah original text was received directly by the patriarch Abraham. With significant detail, the Sepher Yetzirah’s concise text of only 1,500 lines offers a vivid description of the events leading up to, and including, the birth of the cosmos and ultimately, our bodies. The entire text of the Sepher Yetzirah is written from the perspective of an observer narrating the miracle of God’s works step-by-step. In the first chapter, it begins by stating that our world is the result of three kinds of information and recorded in three distinct volumes: (1) text (Sepher), (2) number (Sephar), and (3) communication (Sippur). From these three books, the text continues: ‘He [God] created His Universe.”3
Throughout the remainder of the Sephar Yetzirah, the narration describes God’s act of creation with progressively greater levels of detail. From the formation of the first elements of the universe, represented as the Hebrew letters of God’s ancient name, to the way the remaining letters of the Hebrew alphabet formed “all that was ever formed,”4 the universe unfolds before our eyes as precise combinations of these letter-elements. With an unprecedented level of detail in any other creation story, the Sepher Yetizrah offers the precise instructions as to how the 22 Hebrew letters interact with one another to create the all the elements our world is made of. Karen Armstrong, scholar and foremost authority of world religions, in her book A History of God states, “That through the Speher Yetzirah there is no attempt to describe the creative process realistically; the account is unashamedly symbolic and shows God creating the world by means of language as though he were writing a book.”5
When we take a closer look at the Sepher Yetzirah the text suggests that it offers us much more than a symbolic tale. With the discoveries linking the Hebrew alphabet with modern elements indicate that the Sepher Yetzirah is actually a very ancient and rich account of the intentional act of creation. For when we look at the Sepher Yetzirah text we find that the step-by-step process it describes closely parallels the discoveries of science made in the 20th century. However, the controversy and mystery remain topics of many heated debates today.
In his book “The God Code,” Gregg Braden’s work describes for us the historical significance of utilizing these ancient writings to identify our creation. The book lays out for us in detail the step-by-step understanding of our creation and how these ancient writings describing our creation is exactly what modern day science has come to know independently of each other. Braden identifies for us that,
“God’s Hebrew name in the ancient times was YHVH and that YH is the abbreviated and accepted form of YHVH meaning Eternal, the ancient name of God. He goes on to tell us that substituting modern elements for the ancient letters, that we see a result that, at first blush, may be unexpected. Replacing the final H in YHVH with its chemical equivalent of nitrogen, God’s name becomes the elements hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and nitrogen (HNON) – all colorless, odorless, and invisible gases! In other words, replacing 100 percent of God’s personal name with the elements of this world creates a substance that is an intangible, yet very real form of creation!
Indeed, in the earliest descriptions of God, we are told that He is omnipresent and takes on a form in our world that cannot be seen with our eyes. Thus, He can be known only though His manifestations. The Sepher Yetzirah describes this nonphysical form of God’s presence as the ‘Breath’ of God.
Exodus reminds us in very specific terms that the name YHVH was revealed as the personal name of God. In equally clear terms, we are shown that humankind is made ‘in the image’ of God. Perhaps in these statements may be found the most direct clue describing our relationship to the source of all that ‘is.’ With new emphasis, the statement regarding our origins reminds us that we are made in the image of God, rather than being made as, or equal to, God. Although subtle, this statement suggests that, while we undeniably share in the attributes of our Creator, we’re also set apart from YHVH by something that makes us very different.”
With the discovery in the year 2000 of our genetic code, we can look to it and see just what all this means to us in defining for us our creation and life.
To break this down now for our understanding, God’s ancient name was YHVH. In Watson and Crick’s discovery of our genetic code they found that life is formed as combinations of only four chemical compounds. These compounds (basic units of life) – adenine, thymine, guanime, and cytosine (A, T, G and C respectfully) – called DNA bases, carry all the information required to produce every form of life known to ever exist. This means that from the smallest single-celled organisms to the trillions of cells that make up a single human body, the code of each life form is made from different arrangements of these four bases.
Braden in his book “The God Code” tells us, “The key to translating the code of DNA into a meaningful language is to apply the discovery that converts elements to letter. Based upon their matching values, hydrogen becomes the Hebrew letter Yod (Y) nitrogen becomes the letter Hey (H), oxygen becomes the letter Vav (V), and carbon becomes Gimel (G). These substitutions now reveal that the ancient form of God’s name, YH, exists as the literal chemistry of our genetic code. Through this bridge between God’s name and the elements of modern science, it now becomes possible to reveal the full mystery and find even greater meaning in the ancient code that lives as each cell of our bodies.”
Braden provides the following visual representation in his book “The God Code.”
Figure 1.1: The four DNA bases, showing the elements that they are made of, and the equivalent of each element in the Hebrew alphabet. As our genetic code is made of combinations of the DBA bases, sometimes hundreds of letters long, there are a tremendous number of ways the YHVG may be combined in our cells.
Braden goes on in his book “The God Code” to tell us, “Substituting modern elements for the ancient letters, it is clear that although we share in the first three letters representing 75 percent of our Creator’s name, the fourth and final letter of our chemical name sets us apart from God. While the presence of God is the invisible and intangible form of the three gases, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, the last letter of our name is the ‘stuff’ that gives us the color, taste, texture, and sounds of our body: carbon. The one letter that sets us apart from God is also the element that makes us ‘real’ in our world.” Therefore, when we compare God’s Name to Humankind’s Name as Elements we can see the similarities and difference.
Figure 1.2: The H in YHVH of God’s name is replaced by G in the YHVG of Humankind. Through language, this illustrates that, while we share three of the four letters of God’s personal name as our genetic code, we are not equal to God – 25 percent of our composition is very different. It is this difference that gives us our physicality and accounts for our uniqueness as a species.
Braden goes on in his book “The God Code” to tell us that, “An even closer examination of the actual letters that form the name of God and the body of man clarifies precisely what this ancient relationship says to us today. While original versions of the biblical texts fully acknowledge God’s name as YHVH, they also refer to the shortened version YH, as was previously noted. Scholars generally accept the two names THVH and YH as interchangeable, ‘When translated, the name YH may be read as ‘the Eternal.’
Although the specifics may vary across time and culture, in modern English the meaning of the word eternal clearly implies an existence having no beginning or end and functioning beyond the limitations of time. It is precisely this ‘eternal’ aspect that’s common to both the name of God, YHVH, and the human body, YHVG, as indicated by the underlined letters. Through both the secret letter codes of antiquity, and the literal translation of DNA as an alphabet, we’re shown that something about our existence remains lasting and eternal. We share that never-ending quality with our Creator through a full 50 percent of the elements that define our genetic code.
YHVH = the name of God
YHVG = the name of Man
YH (God/Eternal) forms one-half of God’s name and the name coded into our cells.
The second aspect of our chemical name carries our relationship with God to a new level. Further, it describes precisely how God exists in our bodies. The next two letters (VG) of our name as Hebrew letter equivalents of DNA (YHVG) illustrates the nature of this relationship. In the science of gematria, it’s important to note the number codes of ancient alphabets are not sensitive to the order of the letters.
Additionally, within the mysteries of the Kabbalah, the reverse (altered) order of a given set of letters is often associated with alternate realms of creation. While the qualities related to such a mirror may vary, the meaning itself does not change. Thus, with consideration to the VG or GV of humankind’s name, YHVG, we may look to the literal translation for greater understanding.
Within the Hebrew language, the letters GV translate to the idea of ‘within,’ or more specifically, ‘the interior of the body.’ Within the Sepher Yetzirah’s mysterious 231 mystical gates of creation, ‘GV represents DM, or the root of the name of Adam, meaning ‘blood.’ Combining these translations of the message in our cells now offers an unprecedented insight into our relationship to creation through the name of God. By replacing the elements of DNA with their equivalents of Hebrew letters, we reveal the message that is spelled out within each cell of our bodies.
YH: the abbreviated and accepted form of YHVH/Eternal, the ancient name of God.
VG/GV, within the body.
A literal translation reveals the message: ‘GOD/ETERNAL WITHIN THE BODY.”