Did the Lord Make Other Humans Beside the Original Parents?
The Bible doesn’t mention that God created other humans beside Adam and Eve on earth. The scripture says, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven…Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
“The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed… Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ …So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:4-8, 18, 21-22).
The Genesis account says clearly that God made one man and later from his rib another human being – a women. Since Adam and Eve were the first human beings, their children would have no other choice than to intermarry. Adam and Eve did not have any genetic defects, and that enabled them and their descendants to have better health. God did not forbid inter-family marriage until the time of Moses when there were enough people in the world and the genetic pool got weak (Leviticus 18:6-18).
All men sprang from common ancestors, our first parents – Adam and Eve. And that is how the earth was populated with human beings. After the tower of Babel, Noah’s decedents migrated from the Middle East (Genesis 11:1-9) to the different parts of the earth.
As people dispersed and intermarried between themselves, certain genes within the human gene pool became dominate within each group, while others became latent. With time, these genes produced the skin color, hair color and texture, bone structure and other physical characteristics that made each group different.
The Bible states, “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26). Scientific research shows that humans are 99.8% genetically identical. Most differing 0.2% has to do with gender and personalities. Therefore, humans originate from one race.
What is the Origin of the Different Races?
Jesus confirms the Genesis story of one man and one women when He said, “And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh” (Matthew 19:4-6).
Some raise this question to look for an answer as to the origin of the different races. There is one explanation that says that God gave Adam and Eve the genetic ability to produce children with different skin color and other physical characteristics. And the eight survivors of the flood (Noah, his wife, their children and their wives –Genesis 7:13), possessed the genetics to produce children of different races.
Another explanation says that after the flood, God made genetic changes in humanity to help people survive in different ecologies, such as the darker skin of Africans to survive the heat in Africa. But the most important truth in relation to this question is that humans are all the same race, all created by the same God to have a loving relationship with Him (Philippians 3:10).
In His service,
BibleAsk Team
