Deuteronomy 18 and the Paraclete: 4 points on Muhammad in the Bible

The Quran describes the unlettered Prophet as one whom the People of the Book find written in their Torah and Gospel.^[1] It also records Jesus telling the Children of Israel that he confirms the Torah before him and brings good news of a messenger to come after him, whose name is Ahmad.^[2]

Muslim writers have pointed to two biblical passages in particular: the prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy, and the Comforter promised in the Gospel of John. Christian writers dispute both readings. The points below set out each passage, the Muslim case and the Christian reply.

In Deuteronomy, God tells Moses that he will raise up for the Israelites a prophet from among their brethren, like Moses, will put his words in his mouth, and that the prophet will speak all that God commands him.^[3] Muslim writers note that the same book closes by saying that no prophet like Moses arose again in Israel,^[4] and that the Torah calls other peoples the Israelites’ brethren, as with the children of Esau.^[5] On that reading, the brethren of Israel include the descendants of Ishmael, and a prophet who brought a law, led a community and spoke words put in his mouth fits Muhammad.

Christian interpreters answer that the earlier verse in the same passage places the prophet in the midst of Israel, from among thy brethren,^[6] and that the Book of Acts applies the prophecy to Jesus.^[7] The Muslim reply is that Acts is a later Christian reading of the text, and that the comparison with Moses, a lawgiver and ruler, fits Muhammad more closely than Jesus. The verses themselves allow both readings to be argued.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus promises that the Father will give the disciples another Comforter (parakletos in Greek), who will come only if Jesus goes away, who will guide them into all truth, who will not speak of himself but will speak whatever he hears, and who will glorify Jesus.^[8] Muslim writers compare the last line with the Quran’s description of Muhammad, who does not speak from his own desire, for it is revelation revealed to him.^[9]

The Christian objection is direct: the same discourse names the Comforter as the Holy Ghost, sent in the name of Jesus.^[10] Muslim interpreters answer that a figure who comes only after Jesus departs, and who speaks what he hears, reads more naturally as a person than as a spirit already present with the disciples. Here too the dispute turns on how the passage as a whole is weighed.

Muslim engagement with John is not a modern invention. Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet’s first major biographer, quoted a passage from the Gospel of John on the coming Comforter in a Syriac form and commented that the Munahhemana in Syriac is Muhammad, and in Greek the paraclete.^[11]

Alfred Guillaume, the translator of Ibn Ishaq, identified the source of the quotation as the Palestinian Syriac Lectionary, which uses the word rendered Comforter, where other Syriac versions keep the Greek paraclete.^[12] The detail shows that Muslims of the eighth century were reading Christian scripture in the forms their Christian neighbours used, and drawing their conclusions from it.