How can we explain the different ethnicities and races if we all came from Adam and Eve?
While it is true that all human lives came from the lineage of Adam and Eve, it is also true that we come from the family of Noah (Genesis 7:21–23). Therefore, many assume that the narrative of Scripture can’t be trusted, because if we all came from the same family, then all people would look similar and have the same skin tones.
This can best be explained through the perspective of Genesis 11. Many people had been born on the earth from Noah’s time until they began building the tower of Babel. Here’s what the Bible says:
“Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” Genesis 11:1–9
After God confused the languages and scattered the people all over the world, they began to form different tribes, clans, and nations. In their isolation, many of these groups began to intermarry and mingle with other groups, and certain genetic traits were formed and became more predominant in certain regions and ethnic groups.
While the Bible does not explicitly say how the different skin tones and genetic traits were formed, we know that God must have allowed these over time. The Bible also says that God knits us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13–14), so perhaps He created those genetic features, Himself! It will definitely be a question we will ask the Lord when we get to Heaven.