Book contents
10 - The Creator
Comforting the Afflicted
from Part II - Admitting Defeat
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2023
Summary
These first lines of Handel’s Messiah are drawn from poetry that an anonymous group of Judean scribes known collectively as Second Isaiah composed to comfort their people in the wake of Babylon’s devastation of Judah. The first half of Isaiah (chapters 1–39) concludes with a foretelling of Judah’s suffering and downfall. Without pausing to describe the fulfillment of that disturbing forecast, the book begins anew with Second Isaiah’s stirring poems and prophecies.
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- Why the Bible BeganAn Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins, pp. 153 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023