Since the name and shadow of Muhammad are nowhere in the Bible, the Muslims desperately quoted several verses from the Bible and marked them as references to their prophet. It is ironic that the Muslims accused the Bible of being corrupted, but at the same time keep inserting their prophet into the Bible. One of these alleged Biblical references to Muhammad is the verse below;
[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.
ANSWER
In the verse above, God told Moses that He would raise up a prophet from among his brethren—the Israelites. Muhammad was not an Israelite; therefore, he could not fulfill this prophecy. The promised prophet would be like Moses in the sense that God would put His words in the prophet’s mouth, just as Moses served as God’s spokesman before Pharaoh and led the Israelites to freedom. During Moses’ infancy, Pharaoh ordered the killing of Hebrew baby boys in an attempt to prevent the promised deliverer from surviving. Likewise, during Jesus’ infancy, King Herod ordered the killing of young children in an attempt to destroy the promised deliverer.
Furthermore, unlike Moses, Muhammad did not liberate a people from bondage; on the contrary, Islamic sources describe the existence of slavery within his society, in fact, he himself owned slaves. Aside from not being a brother of the Jews, Muhammad ordered his followers to annihilate the Jews, which is strong proof that he was not sent to the Jews. The promised prophet fits Jesus because He descended from the people of Israel and was therefore one of Moses’ brethren. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke God’s message to His people, just as Moses did. Moreover, Jesus liberated people from the bondage of sin and, ultimately, from the corruption and decay of the mortal body through the promise of resurrection. Kindly read;
[Luke 7:16] Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people!”
[John 12:49] “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak”
[John 14:10] Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.
[John 8:35-36] A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
[Romans 8:2] And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
COMMENT: Luke 7:16 tells the reaction of the people after witnessing Jesus resurrected a dead young man. They looked at Jesus as a raised prophet from among themselves and a visiting God. In John 12:49 & John 14:10, Jesus tells us that the words he uttered are not his own but from the Father who dwells in him, so he declared that He’s a God’s speaker. While John 8:35-36 & Romans 8:2 tell us that Jesus liberated people from the power of sin.
If we go further to verses 20 to 22 of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we can read these;
[Deuteronomy 18:20] “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”
[Deuteronomy 18:21-22] You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’. “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.
COMMENT: Deuteronomy 18:20–22 provides the criteria for identifying a false prophet. One of those criteria is that a true prophet must not speak in the name of other gods. Muhammad violated this standard by speaking the names of the pagan deities Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat (Quran 53:19–20, as interpreted in connection with the “Satanic Verses” tradition. Therefore, from this perspective, Muhammad does not qualify as a true prophet and falls under the judgment pronounced in Deuteronomy against those who speak in the name of other gods.
To better understand who is this predicted prophet, let us read and examine Deuteronomy chapter 18, from verse 15 to 20;
(New International Version)
15The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
16For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17The Lord said to me: “What they say is good.
19I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.
20But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
COMMENT: Verse 15 tells us that the promised prophet would arise from among the Israelites, not from the Arabs or from the brethren of Muhammad. In verse 16, God explains why He would raise up such a prophet: the Israelites were afraid of Him because of the consuming fire and His thunderous voice at Mount Sinai. According to the Christian understanding, this is one reason God took on human nature in the person of Jesus Christ—so that He could dwell among His people without terrifying them and communicate His message to them in a personal and accessible way. Verse 19 further states that this prophet would speak the very words of God to the people. Muhammad does not fulfill this description because his teachings cannot be regarded as the words of God.
Likewise, the apostles claimed that it was Jesus whom God referred to in Deuteronomy 18;
[Acts 3:22-23] Heaven must receive Jesus until the time when everything will be restored as God promised through his holy prophets long ago. “Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will send you a prophet, an Israelite like me. Listen to everything he tells you.
[Acts 7:37] Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.
Prophets should come from the descendants of Isaac, and not from Ishmael the ancestor of Arabs;
[Genesis 17:20-21] And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear unto you at this set time in the next year.
The Quran itself debunks the prophethood claim of Muhammad for it says the prophets and revelations should come from the descendants of Isaac and Jacob;
[Quran 29:27] And We gave to Him Isaac and Jacob and placed in his descendants prophethood and scripture. And We gave him his reward in this world, and indeed, he is in the Hereafter among the righteous.ou
Salvation should come from the Jews, and not from Arabs the bloodline of Muhammad;
[John 4:21-22] Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews
[Luke 24:47] and in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.
[Romans 1:16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Holy Scriptures were already closed by God so nothing maybe added or removed;
[Revelation 22:18-19] I testify to everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and the holy city, which are described in this book.le
CONCLUSION
Ahmed Deedat, who advocated the claim that Muhammad is the prophet referred to in Deuteronomy 18:18, deceptively replaced the words “brethren” or “countrymen” with the word “Jews” and presented this altered translation to his Muslim audience. His apparent objective was to connect Muhammad to the Jewish people.
It is important to note that the Jews whom God brought out of Egypt into the Holy Land were descendants of Jacob, who was also called Israel. Jacob and his family fled to Egypt, and after they multiplied into a great nation, God led them back to Canaan, the Promised Land, which later became known as Israel. God set the Israelites apart from the other descendants of Abraham and chose them as His covenant people. Why did God separate this particular nation, accompany them, and sanctify them? According to the biblical narrative, it was because the Holy One—the Savior—would come from their lineage.
Muhammad cannot be the prophet foretold in Deuteronomy 18:18 because he did not descend from the bloodline of Jacob but from Ishmael, one of Abraham’s sons and the traditional ancestor of the Arabs. Furthermore, from the author’s perspective, Muhammad’s teachings cannot be regarded as the words of God. He taught doctrines that the author considers irrational and superstitious, and Islamic tradition also records the episode commonly referred to as the “Satanic Verses” (often associated with Quran 53:19–20). Likewise, the author argues that Muhammad’s military actions against Jewish tribes—including the execution of hundreds of men from one tribe—demonstrate that he was not sent to save the Jews but to wage war against them.
Deedat was able to make these claims confidently before his Muslim audience because he believed that many of them were not sufficiently familiar with the biblical Scriptures to verify his assertions.
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