 Was Jesus a prophet? According to Judaism, the Torah was given to the Jewish people as a guidebook for life. We believe that within the Torah is the blueprint of creation that provides us with the foundation and principles upon which heavens and earth operate. Regardless of time and location, wherever you will find himself, the Torah will give him insight into how to think and what to do. This was the case when it came to evaluating Jesus and the religion that developed subsequent to his death 2,000 years ago. This issue was significant enough that the Torah provided us with the ways to deal with it. If you were to ask a missionary to show you where Jesus is most openly hinted at in the five books of Moses, he or she would most likely show you the following verse. Quote, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you, referring to Moses, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him, Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 18 through 19. I will raise up a prophet like Moses. Missionaries will ask, who was a prophet like Moses? Who could the Torah be speaking about? They will insist it is Jesus, and if we do not follow Jesus, God will punish us. Like what we now know about how missionaries typically build their case, we need to examine this verse in its full context. When we read it in its entirety, we see a more complete and accurate picture. Quote, I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet, who shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follows not, nor comes to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. And the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him, Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 18 through 22. This passage serves several purposes. The first is to establish the authority of all future prophets after Moses. If when it says, I will raise up a prophet, it refers to only one person, and that one person is Jesus, where did the earlier prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, get their authority from? Secondly, it provides instruction on the ways to distinguish between a true and a false prophet. We are told that when he prophesies, and that which he predicts does not come about, we know he's a false prophet. By examining the New Testament, we can see how Jesus measured up as a prophet. Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we want to see a sign from you. But he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. This is from the book of Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 through 40. Here Christians boldly claim, Jesus is a prophet because he foretold his own death and resurrection. The problem is that this prophecy was given to the scribes and the Pharisees. If Jesus' prophecy had in fact come true and he was resurrected from the dead, then he should have appeared to these doubters to establish his credibility. But he didn't. Instead, we have to trust his followers that the events of his resurrection did in fact happen. Also, Matthew states that Jesus predicted he'd be buried for three days and three nights. Matthew 12 verse 40. But according to the three synoptic gospels, he was buried for only three days and two nights. According to the Gospel of John chapter 20 verse 1, it was only two days and two nights. In this New Testament passage, quote, Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Matthew chapter 16 verse 28, Jesus is telling his disciples that he shall return to set up his kingdom before some of them die. Obviously, he did not return and has not for 2,000 years. What kind of prophet would Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 18 through 22 deem Jesus to be? There's another passage in the book of Deuteronomy that is very relevant when assessing Jesus and the authors of the Christian Bible, quote, If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder comes to pass of which he spoke to you saying, Let us go after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice and you shall serve him and hold fast to him and that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to thrust you out of the way which the Lord your God command you to walk in. So shall you purge the evil from the midst of you. From the book of Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 2 through 6. Here we learn that God will allow miracle working prophets to come and test our faithfulness to him. We are warned that we must not be fooled by miracles. The magicians of Egypt perform miracles but that does not mean that we should believe in them. However, the Christian scriptures assume that miracles are absolute proof of Jesus' legitimacy as we see in this verse. Therefore, said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God because he does not keep the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man who is a sinner do such miracles? John chapter 9 verse 16. Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 2 through 6 provides the essential criteria with which we are to evaluate all people claiming to speak for God. Two things prove conclusively that these messengers are not from God even if they are able to perform supernatural miracles. First, any deviation from the laws that God revealed to Moses and second, any concept of God we had not previously known. The entire religious edifice of Christian scriptures is impeached by these two criteria. The New Testament consistently asserts that many laws of the Torah that God declared as eternal are no longer binding and presents a view of God that was unknown to our ancestors. We will soon explore these two issues. One last point, we previously learned that the age of prophecy ended with the completion of the Tanakh and this motivated the canonization of the Tanakh because in a sense the book was closed. Indeed, the Jews do not recognize any post-Tanakh prophets. If Jesus was regarded by the Jews as a prophet, then the only category where he could be placed would be a false prophet. Interestingly, did the Prophet Zachariah prophesy about Jesus centuries before he lived? Perhaps so. One of the great commentators to the Tanakh taught that in the Messianic era the false prophets will return to confess their heirs. Who is this prophet Zachariah speaks about with wounds in his hands? On that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for cleansing and for sprinkling. And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass from the land and it shall come to pass that when any shall prophesy, then his father and his mother who bore him shall say to him, shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and his mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies. And it shall come to pass on that day that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he has prophesied, nor shall they wear a hairy mantle in order to deceive. But he shall say, I am not a prophet, I am a tiller of the soil, for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one shall say to him, what are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Zechariah chapter 13 verses 1 through 6.