The following is an appendix to the below series of articles on Deuteronomy 18:
Do Not Be Afraid of Him - Part I
Do Not Be Afraid of Him - Part II
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Appendix I: The Prophet and the Prophets
In its grammatical-historical context, Deuteronomy 18 doesn’t directly predict the coming of one specific individual, at least not in the way that many people surmise.
Whereas Deuteronomy 18 speaks of a “prophet”, singular, the grammatical-contextual usage, in full harmony with the exigencies of Israel’s historical situation, indicates that the word is being used in a collective or distributive rather than in a simple sense, and therefore points not to just one person but to many prophets or an entire order of prophets. In other words, the prophecy/promise of Deuteronomy 18 is about the prophetic office, and is, at least initially, as will be shown, fulfilled in the case of Joshua, Moses’ immediate successor, as well as the long train of Hebrew prophets that God would raise up after him, from Samuel to John the Baptist.
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The rest of this article can be read here at Answering Islam. Comments on the article may be left in the comments section of this blog.
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