A prophet like Moses
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15The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
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12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
14For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
15The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
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19Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
14Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
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11And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
12When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
13Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
14Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.
15When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
16And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,
17And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them.
Moses promised, "The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken" (), and the book of Deuteronomy ends with a forward-looking note: "there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses" (). This was a real expectation before Christianity. 1 Maccabees waits for "a trustworthy prophet", the Qumran Community Rule looks for "the Prophet and the Messiahs", and another Qumran text heads its list of end-time figures with this very passage. Jesus was widely seen as a prophet, and John records that after one of his miracles the crowd said, "This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world" (). Acts records Peter () and Stephen () proclaiming him the prophet like Moses.
It is stronger than many items, because the expectation of an end-time prophet was real and pre-Christian. In its original setting, though, the passage establishes prophecy as Israel's alternative to divination and gives a test for any prophet. Jesus was remembered as "one of the prophets" (), but the explicit link to Deuteronomy 18 appears in the church's interpretation after Easter, and the role was one that people could take up.
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In the Qumran texts the Prophet is a separate figure from the Messiahs, as "that prophet" still is from "the Christ" in John's Gospel (; 7:40-41); Christianity merged the two roles. The explicit identification of Jesus with the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 appears only in later interpretation (Acts 3 and 7, John 6, and the transfiguration's "hear him"). Matthew's parallels between Jesus and Moses are a literary design. Others also enacted the role in the first century, as Josephus records: a Samaritan who promised to reveal Moses' sacred vessels, Theudas, who promised to part the Jordan, and "the Egyptian".