If Adam and Eve’s complexion was white, how do we now have different skin complexion?

Thanks for the A2A.

There is nothing in the Bible to suggest what skin colour they were.

If you take the account in Genesis at face value, it took place in the Middle East, somewhere close to present-day Iran. Everyone who features in the stories in the Old Testament would have had the complexion of present-day Iranians, a brownish hue, somewhat oddly called “olive”.

As for the “how”, we in Northern Europe lack some genes for producing melanin in the skin. Science says we acquired those genes gradually since adopting agriculture; you would presumably have to compress the time frame and say that God did it, but the effect is the same as far as this question is concerned: pale skin came later.

Looking at how it actually happened, humanity arose some 250,000 to 300,000 years ago in North and East Africa; our skin colour was quite dark, probably akin to the present-day San people of South Africa. Close to the equator, dark skin is a huge advantage since it protects against skin cancer. As we expanded further north, paler skin makes us less likely to get vitamin D deficiency, while the dangers of skin cancers lessens. With an agricultural diet, vitamin D deficiency is a huge danger, and in Northern Europe, sunlight is too weak for vitamin D production half of the year, which is why evolution favoured melanin deficiency: people with their genes for melanin production turned off had a massive advantage and had more descendants.

As for the stories in Genesis, they are simply allegories for ancient conflicts as humanity moved from hunter-gatherers (which is the innocent and relatively care-free existence in the Garden of Eden; hunter-gatherers spend long stretches of the year with a working day of about six hours, including the time it takes to cook the food, while you will notice that Adam’s punishment was to feed his family “through painful toil (…) all the days of your life” and “by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food”) and into pastoralism and settled agriculture (Cain and Abel).

The effect is still the same as far as this question is concerned: pale skin came later.