A Chromosomal Argument with Strings Attached

Over at Times and Seasons they're talking about the conception of Jesus and whether it was sexually-based as some of the early brethren seemed to think it was. I have not had a strong opinion one way or another--I'm not creeped out either way.

In order to support the doctrine that Jesus is literally the Son of God, however, some (Stephen Robinson comes to mind) have argued that Jesus had 46 chromosomes--23 from each parent. I used to think this was a pretty persuasive argument, but now I'm not so sure.


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Enter Evolution: (Always with the evolution!) Our genomes seem to have been shaped by somewhat random forces. In terms of organization and sequence they appear to be quite similar to other primates, especially chimpanzees. Not only are they similar, but there are clues that allow us to infer common ancestry. One change that has occurred in humans since the split from chimpanzees is that two chromosomes in the common ancestor fused to form our chromosome #2. (For a little more on this subject see here.) I don't know if a successful human-chimpanzee hybrid could be produced, but I doubt it. The difference in chromosome number would cause problems. There is a certain point where chromosomal abnormalities lead to cell death.

What I'm saying is that there may be no reason to assume that if God has DNA, that he has 46 chromosomes. Now if you assume that Adam was literally the offspring of God then the chromosomal structure would match up, I suppose, but then we have to explain why other primates have DNA so similar to ours. Not only similar, but as I said, with evidence that suggests a directionality of change opposite of what we would expect under this assumption.

This leaves several possible senerios:

1. On the divine side, no DNA was involved.
2. God shaped our genomes to be like his.
3. God modified his DNA (in specific cells) to be like ours.
4. The problems from apparent chromosomal mismatches were overcome in some other fashion.

I doubt that Jesus's abiltiy to lay down his life and take it up again was due to any coding in his genome, so I don't think it really matters. Helaman 5:11 says "And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance." Furthermore we do not receive priesthood power by any biological means, so I don't see why Jesus's unique abilities were necessarily genetically based. Similarity in appearance could probably be achieved without much trouble. (Just a couple of weeks ago somebody told me that I look exactly like their younger brother. And for that matter, I've run into somebody that looked a whole lot like my younger brother.)

My point is that perhaps we should be more careful in using the 46 chromosome argument because it raises more questions than we are prepared to answer.