# Adam and Eve- Burning in Hell? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855 "2008-09-23T16:39:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/21 "2008-09-24T10:55:27Z")
The Genesis story say’s that God told Adam and Eve, that now they ate from the tree of life they must die, there was no mention of having a soul, or going to a heaven or hell, That idea came up years later. Monavis ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/22 "2008-09-24T16:30:34Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Has any rational person ever looked on God as anything but a control freak and trickster of the highest order, when all the available evidence has been weighed up? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/23 "2008-09-24T16:48:37Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Didn’t God punish Adam and Eve for their sin, and tell them what that punishment was? He didn’t mention hell, so far as I am aware. In fact, the Old Testament (/Hebrew Bible) doesn’t really mention Hell, in the “going to Hell or Heaven” sense, at all: [Who invented Hell?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1853/who-invented-hell) ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/24 "2008-09-24T16:53:49Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Yes. I thought that might be the case. But I’m sure there are probably heart surgeons who smoke cigarettes, also. ---
**Author:** ![ubergoober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ee7513/32.png) [@ubergoober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ubergoober)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/25 "2008-09-24T17:44:30Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Did Dante initially place them in Hell or in Limbo, which was where the “virtuous heathens” (i.e., souls that weren’t Hell-worthy, but had lived before Jesus and therefore couldn’t be saved) resided? Dante had Adam and Eve in Hell with the virtuous pagans until the Harrowing of Hell. ([Wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_Hell#In_literature)) The Harrowing occurs before the action of the poem. Dante does meet Adam in Heaven and gets ask questions such as, “Who was smarter you or Solomon?” ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/26 "2008-09-24T18:09:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by **Sublight** > Did Dante initially place them in Hell or in Limbo, which was where the “virtuous heathens” (i.e., souls that weren’t Hell-worthy, but had lived before Jesus and therefore couldn’t be saved) resided? In Dante’s scheme, Limbo is the first circle of Hell. Virtuous pagans and unbaptized babies go there. They receive no punishment, except for the absence of God. Note, however, that Limbo is only for people who died before they had an opportunity to become Christians. If you had an opportunity, and turned it down, you go down to Malebolgia, with the heretics and atheists. They get punished rather severely. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/27 "2008-09-24T18:56:48Z")
I don’t know if this is canon or just something that is taught to kids to encourage them to act politely, but I was always told in bible study that it is a sin to assume someone went to hell OR heaven unless the bible explicitly says so. I seem to vaguely remember some scriptural support for this but I could be mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/28 "2008-09-24T19:41:23Z")
Btw, the WGN preacher didn’t happen to be a thin older man with a chalkboard, did he? If so, it was Les Feldick. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855/29 "2008-09-24T20:06:14Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Didn’t God punish Adam and Eve for their sin, and tell them what that punishment was? He didn’t mention hell, so far as I am aware. > > 'Twould be a malicious God indeed who would tell His children, “this is your punishment,” and not mention the OTHER punishment. I know of forty-two children who might call Yahweh malicious, were they not busy being torn apart by she-bears. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adam-and-eve-burning-in-hell/464855.md?page=1)