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From: Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Prophets (Continuation)

(Moses spoke to all the people, saying:) [15] “The LORD your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren—him you shall
heed—[16] just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the
assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my
God, or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ [17] And the LORD said to me,
‘They have rightly said all that they have spoken. [18] I will raise up for them a
prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth,
and he shall speak to them all that I command him. [19] And whoever will not
give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it
of him. [20] But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name which
I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods,
that same prophet shall die.’”

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Commentary:

18:9-22. This is a key text as regards the institution of the prophethood in Israel,
and even for the notion of Messiah. Together with the king and the priest, the pro-
phet is one of the great institutions of Israel; the prophet has a very important re-
ligious position and special moral authority. In the Deuteronomic tradition (cf. 34:
10-12) Moses is seen not only as the one who delivered Israel from bondage in
Egypt, not only as a lawgiver, but also as the first prophet and the outstanding
model for all future prophets.

The fundamental role of the prophet is to speak in the name of the Lord and pro-
claim the meaning and scope of past, present and future events: the Israelites
would never have any need, therefore, of wizards, magi or necromancers (people
who call up the spirits of the dead), who were closely linked to idolatry and su-
perstition. However, the fact was that they often fell into this temptation — even
the horrendous sacrificial burning of children (cf. 2 Kings 21:6), repeatedly con-
demned in the Old Testament (cf., e.g., Jer 7:31; Ezek 16:20-21).

Tradition has shown the messianic meaning of vv. 15 and 18. In the New Testa-
ment St Paul identifies the “prophet” who will be raised up as being Jesus Christ
(cf. Acts 3:22-23 which actually quotes Deuteronomy 18:18; cf. also Jn 1:21, 45;
6:14; 7:40).

Foremost among the evidence of Jewish tradition in Jesus’ time, giving strongly
messianic interpretation to this passage, is that from the Qumran manuscripts
(cf. 1 QS 9) which add to this passage that of Deuteronomy 5:28-29 and the re-
ferences to the Star of Jacob (Num 24:17); and the scepter of Israel (Gen 49:10);
and they link 18:9-22 to 33:8-11 through the reference to the priest-Messiah.

The possible collective meaning of what Moses announces here (the fact that it
can be interpreted as referring to the many prophets that God will arise up over
time) is perfectly compatible with its achieving its fullest expression in Jesus
Christ, the greatest of all the prophets (cf. Heb 1:4).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.