Why Do People Have Different Skin Shades?

All humans have the same basic skin color—brown. This color comes from a pigment in our skin called melanin (MEL-uh-nuhn). Skin comes in different shades from light to dark brown.

Most people in the world are a middle brown shade. If Adam and Eve’s skin was middle brown, they would have passed on genetic variations for their children to have a range of skin shades. In just one generation, their children could have had dark brown, middle brown, and very light brown skin.

When people left the tower of Babel to spread across the world, different groups ended up with different skin shades—dark, middle brown, and all shades in between.

Verses to Read

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:9)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, (Acts 17:26)