Is it possible to trace back to Adam?

Question

I've heard that it is not possible to trace our genealogy back to Adam & Eve, yet I have seen pedigree charts of people who have. Does any one know if it is really possible?

Answer 1

The Jews used to have to be able to trace their ancestry back to the founder of whatever tribe each individual was in. They had extensive geneological records, of which only a tiny portion are in the Bible. These records were stored somewhere in Jerusalem, I believe, but they were burned by the Romans. As a result, no one knows how valid they were or how specific. I heard there was a separate set of records for the priests and levites, but particularly for the high priests. These were kept in another city, but I suspect we eventually lost those as well.

The point of all this, is that if anyone could trace their ancestry back to the leader of a tribe of Israel, as the Jews supposedly all could, they would be able to trace themselves back to Adam simply by using the records in the bible that trace Israel himself back to Adam

Answer 2

There's tracing, and there's tracing. The Bible shows lineage from Adam through Christ. I've never known anyone to make it past Constantine, and that only included the then known world. Think of all the cultures that the Bible didn't cover. The Chinese were alive and well at the time as were those from India. Even the U.S. had native populations then. So if you went through one of them, you'd never know since many had no written records. Even if you are English, you would be SOL unless your family was nobility. Common folk generally were illiterate, so no records. And if you did get that far, coming to the U.S. poses another set of problems. People lied all the time to get away from someone, to start a new life, because they wanted no ties to some part of their family. Courthouses have burned taking all their records with them. Any number of things. So I think if this was sent to the Mythbusters, they'd call it Busted.

Answer 3

Without waded into religious argument, this question first assumes that "Adam" and the genealogies of the Old and New Testament have any basis in reality.

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that they do, I think the answer is clearly No - at least not to any degree of recognized genealogical evidence. If you bring in myths and legends, I suppose you might be able to put something together but IMO, such an exercise has about as much utility as showing Elizabeth II's descend from Wodan, chief God of the Anglo-Saxons (which she does if you accept the same "proof" used to get back to "Adam" or any other figure in the Old or New Testament.

Answer 4

It is, kinda.

There were medieval genealogies drawn up in England and elsewhere for royalty that trace back to Adam. Many of these are somewhat unreliable, since the author was motivated to be successful in any case.

The bible itself is a genealogy record, but it's genealogy accuracy gets diluted with the differentiation of which people are real and which are mythic parables. This is the nature of debate with biblical scholars.

Answer 5

You have to have records to document it.
Records have been destroyed over the century.

Of course, this would cause a lot of furor on the Religion and Spirituality board, but some say Adam and Eve were figurative people for man and woman.

Answer 6

Nope. If you could get back to biblical times your problem would be that you don't know in each family who you are a descendant of, they only list the boys in the family and sometimes only one boy. (so and so begat so and so) how do you know you didn't come from one of their siblings? Also during medieval times records weren't kept very well. They also were doctored a bit to get rid of "family discressions."

Answer 7

I would say that it is not possible. There aren't enough primary sources and records out there to ensure its accuracy.

There are always people out there that say its possible. Here is a link to a guy in the U.K. that says Adam is his 141st great grandfather. It is interesting to say the least. Here is the link:

http://www.enlightened.org.uk/grandparents.html

Interesting, huh?

Answer 8

Speaking hypothetically, anything is possible. If you trace back to noah, or maybe someone else in the bible it can be possible...but with that many years, and gaps in technology...I don't think it's possible to know for certain.

Answer 9

No... you may have a better chance tracing back to the amoebas.

Answer 10

i doubt it is physically possible given the periods of human history where technology was very limited and very few could read or write.