"... The fire and the worms that consume the damned first appear in Isaiah 66:24 in the context of historical eschatology as the burning corpses of apostates are on display near Jerusalem; yet this very passage seems to have suggested the idea of a fiery hell when the fire and the worms of Isaiah 66 later repeatedly appear as epithets of a place of torment. Some texts strongly suggest annihilation or extinction of the impious – 1 Enoch 1:9; 1 QpHab 13; CD 2:5-7 and 2 Maccabees 7:14. In other texts it remains unclear whether the destruction of the sinners means a once-and-for-all extinction or else a lasting state – the Psalms of Solomon 3:11; 15:10-13 and 1 Enoch 98:10-13; 100:9; 102:1; 103:7; 108:3. In still other texts the idea of a prolonged torment before annihilation can be found – 1 QS 4:12-14; 4 Ezra 7:36, 61, 75; 8:59; Pseudo-Philo 18:12; 23:6 and 1 Enoch 48:8-10; 54:6; 63:10. Yet other texts leave no doubt that eternal torment awaits the sinners – 1 Enoch 22:10; 27:2; the Book of Judith 16:17; 4 Maccabees 9:9; 13:14; 2 Baruch 44:12; 59:2; 85:12-13; the Apocalypse of Zephaniah 4:7; 6:2; 2 Enoch 10; 40:12 and the Sibylline Oracles 2:283-312. In most of the texts presented so far the sinners (they) are collectively contrasted to the righteous (us) and the visions of punishment are actually meant as encouragement to the in-group: their afflictions will come to an end, while their oppressors perish one way or another. Many of the texts which most clearly presuppose eternal torment are roughly contemporary with the gospels, and most probably not part of the earliest Jesus tradition (Räisänen 2007:4) ..."