“Comfort, comfort my people.” These remarkably compassionate words are found in the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah. The prophecy goes on to say enough suffering! It's time to return to the conquered land of Israel. But instead of the Red Sea being crossed, God has made a path in the desert. This is an incredibly powerful and hope-filled message, but is it something that might have been uttered by the great prophet Isaiah, living in the eighth century BCE? Or was there a second, anonymous prophet, perhaps belonging to the school of Isaiah, who wrote in the name of the original prophet but who lived some two centuries later, around 546 - 538 B.C.E.?
