We can pretty much dismiss the Muslim claim that Muhammad is the prophet. Muhammad was not an Israelite, and it seems pretty clear from the text that the prophet mentioned would arise from amongst the twelve tribes of Israel.
There weren't twelve tribes by the end of Judah, though. Just two. Right?
In
John 4, the woman of Samaria recognizes Jesus as that prophet. [verses 19-26]
Demons said he was too, but aren't demons liars?
As Jesus said, 'A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house'.
Prophets are a dime a dozen, though.
The miracle of the water into wine has a deeper significance, as Christ's Spirit is represented by new wine.
A. I was under the impression wine gets better with age.
B. Even as a metaphor, the miracle makes a party even drunker. Where was the benefit?
Is the son of God a man of corruption?
A. Is he not descended from the corrupted Adam and Eve?
B. He does a lot of sinning. Jesus' hands aren't clean if you're honest about the stuff he does.
The thing about prophecy is that it does work in cycles, but the culmination is the most perfect.
What if Jesus is just another part of the cycle? Everyone is the last prophet until the next one comes along.
That's obviously just a story about a simple conjuring trick, and that "the servants which drew the water knew" how the trick was done, even though it fooled the "well drunk" boozers.
Jesus is often portrayed in ancient pictures as having a magic wand.
Doesn't change the fact that Psalm 2:6-7 says that David was his god's begotten son as well as the Jewish king.
And supposedly the author of the Psalms, so we have a king who writes some poems about how awesome he is.
Moses was the greatest of the prophets, according to many Jews, because it was to him that the Torah was delivered.
A. Moses is fictional.
B. The scriptures he supposedly wrote can only be traced to the monarchy period of Israel, give or take. The kings and priests made up Moses and used his story to fight it out over secular vs clerical authority.
It just kills me how Moses is the "greatest of the prophets." He's a murderer and leads a riot and gets almost every Hebrew of his generation killed off in the desert. He SUCKS.
But I think there's more to being a prophet that just delivering the verbal message. Moses was used as the channel for God's signs and wonders, too. In fact, I believe it's consistently (I'm open to correction) the prophets through whom God works his miracles in the Tanakh.
But there are people who do magic who aren't prophets, though.
So, to recognize 'that prophet' which should come, we are not just looking for a great prophet like Moses, but also a prophet who demonstrates his office with signs and wonders.
Jesus said only wicked people look for signs and wonders.
In the New Testament, the Samaritan woman that met Jesus at the well [
John 4] said to him, 'Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet'. Later she said, 'I know that the Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things'. Jesus said to her, 'I that speak unto thee am
he'.
This is the woman who had to guilt trip Jesus into even helping because he was racist.
It seems to me that 'that prophet' prophesied by Moses must also be the Messiah.
Lots of people are messiahs in the bible. It only refers to anointed people. Persian kings could be messiahs.
I wonder if it will not be 'required' of all who choose not to listen. In
John 5:46 Jesus said, 'For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me'.
But he didn't, because he didn't exist.
Can you not see that even Joshua was a 'type' of Christ?
Anointed? Yes. Another genocidal maniac? Also yes.
The names [Joshua/Jesus] mean the same thing, and whilst Joshua provides entry into the Promised Land, Christ provides entry into the Kingdom of God.
But Joshua and Moses failed, as just about everyone from their generation died in the wilderness and never even set foot in the promised land. And God was capable of getting people in Heaven without Jesus.
Do you not believe that the Hebrew scriptures pointed towards a Messiah?
The "Mosaic" scriptures were written throughout the monarchy and exile periods. If you realize that, you start to see in the texts how they are veiled references to the "current" audience for those texts.
The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation; two thousand years the Torah flourished; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era, but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost.'
But the Earth is much older than that and shall be much older still. Hindus are better at getting the correct ballpark figures than the bible is.
Why else did crowds gather to John [the Baptist] to ask if he were the Christ?
There were messiahs all over the place during Jesus' time. You couldn't get across the street without running into them.
Miracles are from God, and if you choose to mock the miracles of the New Testament you should be consistent and mock the miracles of the Hebrew scriptures, such as parting the Red Sea. But, hang on, that leaves the Israelites stranded in Egypt.
It doesn't really, because they weren't there. The only "Egypt" they could have been in was where Israel is now, because Egypt owned that land. It's like saying you will move out of the US by going from South Dakota to Maine. You haven't left the US. Also, the trip takes maybe a couple of weeks on foot. Moses is bad at roadtrips.
And David. Is David alive today? I don't think so.
Neither is Jesus.