Is Muhammad the Prophet of Deuteronomy 18?

Qur’an 7:157 says the prophet is written in the Torah and the Gospel that people already have. Deuteronomy 18 is the chapter usually opened to make good on that sentence.

The question

Muslims who look for Muhammad in the Bible often begin with Deuteronomy 18, the promise of a prophet like Moses, and with Qur’an 7:157, which says that prophet is found written in the Torah and the Gospel. A second candidate, the Comforter in John 14–16 and the name Ahmad, is Is Muhammad the Paraclete or Ahmad?. This page stays with Deuteronomy and with the Qur’an verse that sends a reader there.

What Muslims say

The case is straightforward, and it should be stated at full strength. God tells Moses he will raise up a prophet “from among their brethren,” like Moses, and put his words in that prophet’s mouth. Israel’s brethren, on this reading, are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s other son. Muhammad is an Ishmaelite, a lawgiver, a leader of a community, and a man who said he spoke God’s words. Jesus, in this comparison, did not marry, did not govern, and did not bring a law in Moses’ manner, so he is not the prophet “like Moses.” Qur’an 7:157 then says the followers of “the unlettered prophet” find him written in the Torah and the Gospel they possess. Deuteronomy 18 is offered as the Torah passage. John 14–16 is offered as the Gospel passage, which the next article takes up.

One widely distributed English Qur’an makes that identification inside the verse itself, in parentheses. That translation is quoted below so the claim is visible. The parentheses are the translators’ addition. They are not a reason to sneer. They show how sure some Muslims are that these are the chapters.

What the texts say

Qur’an 7:157 (1), Saheeh International:

Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written [i.e., described] in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and prohibits them from what is wrong and makes lawful for them what is good and forbids them from what is evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him - it is those who will be the successful.

Saheeh International glosses “written” as “described.” The verse says they find him in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel. The books are the ones in their possession. That is the same present-tense note as on the confirmation page.

The Hilali and Khan translation of the same verse (2) begins:

Those who follow the Messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم) whom they find written with them in the Taurât (Torah) (Deut, xviii 15) and the Injeel (Gospel) (John xiv, 16),

The names “Deut, xviii 15” and “John xiv, 16” sit in parentheses in that English. A reader who treats them as words of the Arabic is reading the translators’ cross-references. The Arabic claim, in Saheeh International’s rendering, is that he is written in the Torah and the Gospel they have. Which paragraph that is has to be shown from those books.

Deuteronomy 18:15 (3), in the King James Version this site publishes: “The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;” Deuteronomy 18:18: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” Deuteronomy 18:19 says God will require it of whoever will not listen.

Two nearby uses of “brethren” show how Deuteronomy is using the word. Deuteronomy 17:15, on the king: “one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.” Deuteronomy 18:2, on the Levites: “Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.” The Levites’ brethren are the other tribes of Israel. The king’s brethren are Israelites, and a stranger who is not their brother is excluded.

Deuteronomy 34:10 looks back: “And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,” The book’s own measure of “like unto Moses” is knowing the LORD face to face, with the signs of the exodus, in verses 11 and 12.

The New Testament applies the promise to Jesus. Acts 3:22–26 (4) quotes Moses on the prophet God will raise up “of your brethren, like unto me;” and then says, “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” John 1:45 (5): “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

A Christian response

The Muslim argument depends on “their brethren” meaning Ishmael’s line rather than Israel’s own kin. Inside Deuteronomy, the same word is used for the tribes in relation to each other. The king must be from among the brethren, not a stranger. The prophet is “from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,” a hard phrase to move to a nation that is not Israel. Muhammad is not an Israelite. That is not an insult. It is a statement about the address of the verse: God is speaking to Israel about a prophet from Israel’s midst.

“Like unto Moses” is also defined in the book, at Deuteronomy 34:10–12. The comparison is face-to-face knowledge of the LORD and the signs done in Egypt. A list of likenesses drawn from later biography — a law code, a marriage, a community — is a different list from the one Deuteronomy uses. Christians do not deny that Muhammad announced a law and led people. They deny that Deuteronomy 18 is a description of him.

Acts 3:22–26 is how the apostles read the chapter. A Muslim who does not accept Acts as scripture is not obliged to stop there. The point for Qur’an 7:157 is different. The verse says the prophet is written in the Torah and the Gospel that the People of the Book have. The Gospel they have, in John 1:45 and in Acts, names Jesus as the one Moses wrote about. It does not name Muhammad. If the Qur’an is right that the description is in the books they possess, the reader has to find it in those books in context. Inserting “(Deut, xviii 15)” in an English Qur’an states the conclusion. It does not show that Deuteronomy 18, read with Deuteronomy 17 and 34, is about a non-Israelite prophet of the seventh century.

Christians also say Jesus is the prophet like Moses and more than a prophet. He is the Son. That further claim is the deity of Christ, not a denial that Deuteronomy 18 is about a prophet. The chapter can be about Jesus without being the whole of who Christians say he is.

Common objections

“Brethren” means cousins, so an Ishmaelite fits. Cousins can be called brethren in ordinary speech. Deuteronomy 17:15 uses the word to exclude a stranger who is not their brother, in a law about Israel’s king. Deuteronomy 18:2 uses it for the other Israelite tribes over against Levi. A meaning that works for Ishmael in 18:18 has to be read back into those lines as well. The nearer meaning, in the chapter itself, is Israel.

Jesus cannot be like Moses because Moses was a ruler and a lawgiver. The verse does not list ruling and marriage as the likeness. Deuteronomy 34:10 lists knowing the LORD face to face. Jesus, in the Gospel, speaks God’s words, is sent to Israel, and is identified by his followers as the one Moses wrote about. Whether he is also the divine Son is the argument of the other articles. It is not required to see that Deuteronomy’s prophet is located “from the midst of thee,” in a word addressed to Israel.

The Gospel was corrupted, so John and Acts do not count. Then Qur’an 7:157 is pointing at books that, on that theory, no longer contain the description. The verse says they find him in what they have. The corruption page is Was the Bible corrupted?. The Gospel page is What is the Injil?.

Other chapters, such as Isaiah 42, are the real prediction. This page does not take up every proposed chapter. Any candidate has to be a description in the Torah or the Gospel they have, which is what 7:157 claims, and it has to survive the paragraph around it. Deuteronomy 18 is the one this article is for, because it is the one the Hilali and Khan parentheses name first, and the one the “prophet like Moses” argument uses.

Keep reading

• Is Muhammad the Paraclete or Ahmad?
• Does the Qur’an confirm the Bible Christians read today?
• What is the Injil?
• The deity of Christ