Question: “How or when did the different races come into play or how did they come about and in which parts of the earth did each of Noah’s sons settle?”
Today there are almost eight billion people living on the earth. These eight billion people are divided into groups call “races.” “A human “race” is defined most often as a group of people with certain features in common that distinguish them from other groups of people. Currently, there are three or four major “races” of humans, as the word race is commonly defined: (a) Australoid; (b) Caucasoid; (c) Mongoloid; and (d) Negroid. Generally speaking, the Australoids are considered a subgroup of the Caucasoids, simply because the two groups have so many features in common, despite the fact that Australoids possess dark skin (the Australoid group is often known as the Australian Aboriginal Group). If a breakdown by percentages of the world’s population were attempted, the groups would look like this: Caucasoid, 55%; Mongoloid, 33%; Negroid, 8%; Australoid, 4%. It is interesting to note that these races are distributed around the globe throughout over 100 nations and speak 3,000+ tribal languages and dialects.” (Reason and Revelation Volume 23 #9 Apologetic Press). Where did those races come from and how were they scattered all over the world?
The shocking truth, which some refuse to believe, is that all of these people came from one man and one woman, Adam and Eve (Genesis 1-5). Eve is said to be “the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). If all people came from just two people, why is there so much difference in the way people look? This is a subject beyond my educational training; therefore, I cannot discuss this in great detail. As hard as it may be to believe, when God created Adam and Eve, He put in them the capability to produce the various features which distinguish races. It depends on how the dominant and recessive genes arrange themselves to determine to what race one belongs. My wife and I know personally, a white couple who fathered and gave birth to a black baby. There was no adultery involved. This was a case where those genes in the man and woman, became the dominant gene.
Because of the depth of this medical issue, I encourage you to search among Christian apologetic sources for the details of how multiple races can come from two people. I have heard and read explanations but cannot explain it as well as those trained in that field can. One source for details is to go to the Apologetic Press website and read articles they have published on this topic.
The Scattering of the Races
Because “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” He destroyed all but eight people who lived on the earth (Genesis 6:5). Those eight people were Noah and his wife, their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives (Genesis 7:7). “Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words” (Genesis 11:1), but they decided to build a tower that would reach into the heaven (Genesis 11:4). God said, “Come let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:7-8). This is how people scattered all over the world.
Genesis 10 and 11 is often called “The Table of Nations” because Moses recorded the offspring of Noah’s three sons. By seeing where these people scattered and the cities they established, scholars are able to determine through whom the various races came and where they lived. In The Word of God in History by Loyal R. Ringenberg, “Bishop Wm. G. Blaikie, said, ‘In general terms, it may be said that most of Africa was peopled by the descendants of Ham; most of Central Asia by those of Shem; and most of Europe by those of Japheth’” (p. 37) [This information is given by many different scholars]. It is possible to identify various nations by studying the names of the offspring of each son of Noah, but that is too detailed for this short answer to the question which was asked.
As these people settled in certain areas of the world they would intermarry with people with similar genetic characteristics. Therefore, people in an area of the world would begin to look alike. Those particular genes would become the dominant genes in those people. This would lead to the different looks and characteristics and form different races of people.
Much has been written and much can be said about this interesting subject, but maybe this brief summary may help us understand how races came to be and how they came to live where they lived.
Wayne Burger