What is the biblical perspective on the origin of different races?

Question

Does anyone know what the bible says is the origin of the different races? I have always heard people say it happened in the "tower of babel" incident, but the bible only discusses the change of languages, not skin color and hair texture. Is there a different perspective?

Answer 1

God has made of ONE blood ALL Nations of Men

Acts 17:26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation (Gen.11:8-9 below):


I believe that when the Lord confounded the language at the Tower of Babel (Gen.11:1-9 below), what also accompanied the confounding of the language would have been that with the many languages that were given, the skin pigmentation and features of the people changed according to the languages given, so that when the people were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth (Gen.11:8-9 below), the skin pigmentation/features went with them to their respective regions of the earth?

Gen.11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Gen.11:2 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.

Gen.11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

Gen.11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Gen.11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

Gen.11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Gen.11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language (Gen.11:9 below), that they may not understand one another's speech.

Gen.11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of ALL the earth (Gen.11:9 below): and they left off to build the city.

Gen.11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth (Gen.11:7 above): and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of ALL the earth (Acts 17:26 above).



Pat (ndbpsa ©)

Answer 2

From the biblical perspective, there's only one race, the human race. The genetic differences between us are really very small. Think about it, for the most part, we all have the same organs and body parts, the main visible differences are sex, body type, hair eye and skin color, and height. That's about 6 characteristics that you can see.

You're right that the Bible only discusses the languages, however, as ppl speaking the same language moved together and away from ppl who spoke different languages, this would divide the gene pool, so that after a period of time some groups only had dark skin while others had light skin, some were taller than others, etc.

This also occurs in speciation. Evolutionists say new species arising is the result of new information. This isn't true, however, bc you can create a new species quite easily by separating a group of animals from the main group. For example, group B separates from larger group A. After a period of time, a new species will arise bc those animals only have the genes available in the original group B to work with. In fact, speciation is the result of a loss of information, they lost the information that was present in the main group.

Answer 3

Have you heard of the saying 'the world would be boring if we all looked the same'. Well, since God obviously desired humanity to be diverse in appearance, it makes sense that God would have given Adam and Eve the ability to produce children of different skin tones. Some speculate that when God confused the languages at the tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9, He also created racial diversity. Some mixed-race couple sometimes has children that vary in colour. In 2006 news of Kylie with partner Remi and their boilogical black and white daughters Remee and Kian (one black the other white blonde). Colour can skip a generation and enter into the next.

Answer 4

Someone told me once that the Mark of Caine is a certain race (not going to say which one).
Tower of Babel can still relate to your question. As God scattered the people and confused them with different languages, they moved to other locations. Now, at their locations, thay could have developed traits to better survive their environment.

Answer 5

Well there's kind of two ways to answer that. First, well it doesn't mention anything about how folks spread all over the earth. Or not really. Second, well yes it does say that some races were [to begin with] of impure birth and only one was pure. Then Christianity came along and said that all are pure in Christ.

There's a lot of reading put into a short para.

Answer 6

First the Tower of Babel did change there languages and then made them move to different parts of the World. When they got to their part of the world they adapted to the environment.

Answer 7

"The first notice of the forming of separate nations appears in the post-Flood period, in connection with the building of the Tower of Babel. Those sharing in this project were united in their opposition
to God’s purpose. The principal factor facilitating united action was that “all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.” (Ge 11:1-4) Jehovah took notice of this and, by confusing their language, “scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth.”—Ge 11:5-9; MAP Vol. 1, p. 329."

"Separated now by communication barriers, each linguistic group developed its own culture, art, customs, traits, and religion—each its own ways of doing things. (Le 18:3) Alienated from God, the various peoples contrived many idols of their mythical deities.—De 12:30; 2Ki 17:29, 33."

"There were three great branches of these nations stemming from the sons and grandsons of Noah’s sons Japheth, Ham, and Shem, and these were reckoned as the founding fathers of the respective nations called by their names. The listing in Genesis, chapter 10, therefore might be termed the oldest tabulation of nations, 70 in number. Fourteen were Japhetic, 30 Hamitic, and 26 Shemitic in origin. (Ge 10:1-8, 13-32; 1Ch 1:4-25)"

When God spread mankind out after the fall of the tower of Babel, it is a reasonable conclusion that once people were spread out, they began to adapt to the environment they inhabited. Darkly pigmented skin is less suceptible to sun damage, so those who settled in warmer, sunny climates developed darker skin, and vice versa.

Nowhere in the Bible is a specific race or skin color promoted or blamed for any sins. God views us all as equals, regardless of our color, race, sex, nationality, etc.

Answer 8

There's a solid biblical argument that disbursement of clans resulted in race. Part of God's design, I'd say.

Answer 9

The dominant genes of Japheth, Ham, and Shem founded the three races of white, black , and asians.

Answer 10

The bible is full of inaccurate science - it claims the sun revolves around the earth!- so what it says about race, if anything, is irrelevant. Race came about as adaptation to the climates in which various people lived.