Does Deuteronomy 18:15-18 predict the coming of Muhammad?

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It is amazing to hear some of the claims of Muslims that the Bible actually predicts the coming of the

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Prophet Muhammad. These Muslims believe that the Bible teaches this based on such passages in the Quran as Surah 7, verse 157.

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However, the passages from the Bible that these Muslims appeal to in order to support their case are always taken out of context.

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One of these popular passages is Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses 15 to 18.

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Deuteronomy 18 This text reads, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.

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Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying,

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Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire any more, lest I die.

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And the Lord said to me, What they have spoken is good. And again in verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

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As from the New King James Version. In spite of the claims of these Muslims, there are many reasons why this passage does not in fact refer to the

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Prophet Muhammad. First, the brethren reference in these verses, given the context of Deuteronomy 18, the term brethren is actually referring to Israelites or Jews.

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Deuteronomy 18 .2 says, They shall have no inheritance among their brethren. So the reference again is to Jews.

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Also elsewhere in the book of Deuteronomy, the term brethren refers to fellow Israelites. For example, Deuteronomy 17 .15.

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Since the term brethren refers to Israelites, why would God raise up a prophet from among the enemies of Israel, which would be the

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Arabs? Second, Muhammad came from Ishmael as Muslims admit, but heirs to the

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Jewish throne came from Isaac. The Torah states, My covenant I will establish with Isaac in Genesis 17 .21.

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Later God repeats the same message, In Isaac your seed shall be called, Genesis 21 .12.

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Third, the prophetic line was actually through Isaac. The Quran teaches that the prophetic line came through Isaac, not

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Ishmael, so it even agrees with the Bible. This is what it says, And we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and we established the prophethood and the scripture among his seed.

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However, Yusuf Ali adds the word Abraham in the translation to make it read, We gave

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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and ordained among his progeny prophethood and revelation.

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By adding Abraham, it is possible to include Muhammad in the prophetic line. However, Abraham is not found in the

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Arabic text of the Quran, which Muslims consider to be perfectly correct. So, the fourth reason is that Jesus fulfilled

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Deuteronomy 18 perfectly. First, he came from his Jewish brethren, that's found in Galatians 4 .4.

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Deuteronomy 18 .18 says, He shall speak to them all that I, God, commanded them. Jesus said,

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I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. He says that in John 8 .28.

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You can also look at John 12 .49. Finally, or thirdly, Jesus called himself a prophet.

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Look at Luke 13 .33, and the people considered him to be a prophet. You can look at Matthew 21 .11,

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Luke 7 .16, and other references. Therefore, given the above evidence, it is