Answer
The racial identity of Adam and Eve is a subject of considerable debate and speculation. In the end, whether or not Adam and Eve were white is an issue of little importance.
In many artistic depictions of our first parents, Adam and Eve have white European features. This is simply a matter of the artist projecting his or her racial biases onto the canvas rather than expressing a biblio-historical fact about the physical characteristics of Adam and Eve. The truth is that no one knows what Adam and Eve looked like. Of course, this has not stopped people from creating images of their own.
The Bible does not provide information about the skin complexion of Adam and Eve, making it impossible to assert their racial identity. Were Adam and Eve white? Were they black? A shade of brown? All we know is this: “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis 2:7, ESV).
Some point out that the words Adam and Edom are related and interpret Adam’s name as “man from the red dirt.” But that does not speak of skin color. The expression dust from the ground does not indicate that Adam was white, black, brown, or of any other skin complexion. Instead, it refers to God’s method of forming Adam before breathing life into him.
Furthermore, in Genesis 2:22, Moses does not mention anything about the physical appearance of Eve. He simply says, “The rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man” (ESV). We can conclude that the primary concern of the creation account is not the racial identity of Adam and Eve but God’s special act of creation: “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3).
Adam was the “one man” from whom God “made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth” (Acts 17:26), and Eve was “the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). As our ultimate human parents, Adam and Eve must have had the genetic ability to produce all the races we see today. It would thus be a mistake to classify Adam and Eve as “white” or any other race.
Another reason why we cannot classify Adam and Eve as “white” or any another race is that the concept of race is a modern phenomenon. In the Bible, people are categorized by ethnicity, nationality, ancestry, and language:
Deuteronomy 32:8 — “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the heavenly assembly” (NET).
Acts 17:26 — “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” (ESV).
Revelation 7:9 — “I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands” (NLT).
Speculation about the racial identity of Adam and Eve may be a fun thought experiment, but it is not relevant to our salvation or to any other important Bible topic. We are not saved because we know what Adam and Eve looked like. No, we are saved because we believe in the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?
