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Book: If I Forget You, Jerusalem!

Chapter: 4. Messiah in the Book of Isaiah

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.44795

Blurb:

Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” is founded on the Book of Isaiah, or rather on the messianic interpretation of the book before the introduction of historical critical analysis of the Bible. However, what if it is really a book inspired by messianic theology and not a book written by a prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C.E.? The present revolution in Old Testament studies points in the direction of an messianic understanding already when the book was composed, not in Jerusalem around 800 B.C.E but many centuries later.

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