The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page xcvi
GENERAL INTRODUCTION Jesus laid no claim to giving a new Law, and his disciples regard the Law as a curse. How then can Jesus and his followers be said to fulfil the prophecy in Deuteronomy? Secondly, the Promised Prophet was to be raised not from among Israel but from among their brethren, and Jesus was an Israelite. Christian exponents, confronted with this fact, are wont to say that Jesus had no earthly father, so he can be said to be one of the brethren of Israel. But such a construction would be untenable. The prophecy speaks of brethren, which means they were to constitute a race or a people from among whom the Promised Prophet was to rise. Jesus stands alone, as son of God. If there were other sons of God, he might have answered to the description of the prophecy. But, apart from this, it is clearly laid down in the Bible that Christ was to be of the seed of David (Psalms, 132:11; Jeremiah, 23:5). Jesus may shed his Israelite origin because he had no earthly father: but he will not then remain a son of David, so that the prophecy of the Psalms relating to Christ will not apply to him. Thirdly, the prophecy says, "I will put My words in his mouth. " But the Gospels do not consist of words which God put in Jesus' mouth. They only tell us the story of Jesus and what he said in some of his public addresses and what his disciples said or did on different occasions. Fourthly, the Promised One was to be a Prophet, while the Christian view is that Jesus was not a Prophet, but the son of God. How, then, can Jesus answer to the description of the prophecy? Fifthly, we have in the prophecy: "Words which he shall speak in My name. " Strange as it may seem, there is in the Gospels not a single example of words which Jesus may be said to have received from God with the command to pass them on to the people whom he taught. Sixthly, we have in the prophecy, "He shall speak unto them all that I shall command," The Promised Prophet; according to this, was to give to the world a complete and Comprehensive teaching. But Jesus claimed no such mission for himself. He regarded himself as the forerunner of a greater teacher yet to come. Thus we have (John, 16:12-13): I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. From these verses it appears that the prophecy in Deuteronomy was not fulfilled in Jesus. We cannot but conclude, therefore, that both the Old and the New Testaments foretold the coming of a Prophet after Jesus who was to guide the world "unto all truth", and who was to establish the name of God on lxx