ABSTRACT
For many generations, including the translators of 1611, Isaiah was a single book, although style and theme change completely at Chapter 40. They saw this as the beginning of a series of ‘prophecies’, in the sense of divinely given foresight, foretelling the coming and nature of Christ. It is now generally recognised that this is the beginning of a work by a new, anonymous author, writing c.540 bc, when the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, king of Persia, gave the exiled Jews hope of release after 50 years of exile.
