Mohammed was the Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy

• The Claims
  
• Prophecies Fulfilled by the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
  
• Other Prophecies Fulfilled by Christ

Many Muslims claim that Mohammed was foretold in earlier Scriptures, i.e. the Bible, and thus Christians and Jews ought to recognise that he was The Prophet of God. To substantiate this claim, they point to several passages in the Old and New Testaments which supposedly speak of Mohammed. In fact, this line of inquiry has a very long yet not well-evolved record in the history of Muslim polemics against Christianity. In many respects, the same claims which the Muslims were making against the Byzantines in the 11th century are those which are being used by Muslims in the 21st. Little innovation has been introduced into most of these claims of prophetic foretelling for Mohammed. This is not because of the great success which these Muslim arguments have had with those who are knowledgeable of the Bible (indeed, these arguments tend to serve better at bolstering Muslims in their own beliefs than in changing anyone else's), but rather because of the stagnancy introduced into Muslim polemics on this point. This stagnancy is induced by the Muslim truism that the Bible (the Torah and the Gospels) was altered by the Jews and Christians so as to deny the "truths" of Islam which would otherwise still be found in these texts. Thus, when the Muslims find verses in these Scriptures which their more creative theologians can recast as evidential prophecies of Mohammed, it becomes an article of faith that these "prophecies" are still found (despite Jewish/Christian tinkering) because of providential preservation on the part of Allah. Upon examination, however, it is quite clear that Mohammed is not discussed in these passages, and indeed, the Bible is silent about him. A look at the actual context of these passages, both in the text and in the historico-social settings, dispels the myth that these passages refer to Mohammed. While any Christian who has spent a reasonable amount of time studying the Bible is unlikely to be swayed by the arguments that Mohammed is found in these passages, it may still be helpful to new Christians to see the errors in the Muslim claims for these verses, and can also be of benefit to all Christians who deal with Muslims in helping us to systematically dispel and debunk these claims in the minds of the Muslim friends and neighbours with whom we interact. As such, I present the most common Old and New Testament verses which are abused by Muslim polemicists.

The Claims

Genesis 49:10

"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be."

Muslims claim that because "Judah" is a Hebrew name which has its root in the verb "to praise", and because "Mohammed" means "he is to be praised" in Arabic, that this is a prophecy pointing to Mohammed. This interpretation has several fundamental flaws. First, we should note again that the name "Mohammed" does not really mean "praised one" but "chosen one", and did not take on any apparent aspect as a personal name in Arabic writings until well into the 8th century AD (Nevo and Koren, Crossroads to Islam, p. 265). Before this, the term was used as a titular description, a general term which was introduced into the developing Arab monotheism as the need for a messianic/prophetic figure arose.

Those Muslims who make the argument for this verse, however, miss the fact that it is not Judah who is the object of this prophecy, but the one called “Shiloh”. As such, the matter of what the names “Judah” and “Mohammed” mean in their respective idioms is irrelevant. Shiloh is not so much a name as it is a title or a term of description, one which means “tranquil“, it comes from the Hebrew root word “shalah” which means “tranquil or secure”. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of this Messianic title, He who even in the midst of the raging storm could simply say, “Peace, be still” and cause the wind and waves to cease. He likewise bore His burden of scourging, mockery, and crucifixion with remarkable equanimity. This sort of tranquility and security cannot rightly be said to apply to Mohammed, for whom Islamic traditions record a life characterised by violence, bloodshed, revenge, and strife.

Further, the context of this passage clearly indicates that it was given specifically to Israel’s son, Judah, who was the literal antecedent of the tribe of Judah. As such, there is no contextual warrant for the allegory which Muslims try to spin into this verse. This prophecy saw the first part of its fulfillment some 600 years after it was given when David, of the tribe of Judah, became king of Israel, thus receiving the sceptre, a symbol of royal power and authority. Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, and it is indeed to Him that the gathering of the people both was (Matthew 4:25, Luke 5:17, John 6:2), and will be in the future (Revelation 21:24). Mohammed, of course, was Arab, and not Jewish, and could not have been of the tribe of Judah.

Deuteronomy 18:15,18

"The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken....I 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."

Muslims claim that this passage refers to Mohammed, and support this by pointing to certain copies of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) which lack the phrase "from the midst of thee". Because of this, they say, the "brethren" spoken of were Ishmaelites, who would have been distantly related to the Hebrews by virtue of their descent from Abraham through Ishmael. This explanation falls flat as there is earlier Hebrew manuscript evidence which shows that "in the midst of thee" DOES belong in the text, and thus the Prophet spoken of was to arise from "in the midst" of the Hebrews, to whom Moses was speaking.

Secondly, there is no conclusive evidence that Arabs, or at least most of them, are even descended from Ishmael. We must keep in mind that the word "Arab" is not so much a specific ethnic name, but rather a description. It comes from a common Semitic root ^crb which has several meanings; most prominent among them are the ideas of sterility (probably relating to the desert wastes which these tribes inhabited), duskiness or covering (i.e. to make something dark by covering it), and intermingling (literally, intertwining or braiding). The Bible itself calls the notion of Arabian descendent from Ishmael into question, and seems to suggest for the Arabs a mixed background related to the latter of the meanings for the root given above. In Jeremiah chapter 25, right in the middle of a list of various nations which were to be judged by God, comes verse 24, "And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert." Thus, we see that Arabia is intimately connected with these mingled peoples, groups which had intermarried to the point that their original origin could not be easily determined. In addition, archaeological evidence suggests that the descendents of Cush, a son of Ham, traveled across the Arabian peninsula during their migration from Mesopotamia to the region of Ethiopia, leaving genetic as well as artifactual remains across the whole region.¹ The presence of names relating to Cush in Mesopotamia ("Kish", a Sumerian city) and also all across Arabia into Africa (the Egyptians referred to Ethiopia as "Kesh", there is a region around the Red Sea in Arabia known as "Khuzistan") also indicate this Cushite migration. Evidence also links many tribes all over the Arabian peninsula to the sons of Cush: Sebah, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, Sheba, Dedan, and Sabtecha.² It is this author's studied determination that after the Tower of Babel and the end of Nimrod's (the son of Cush) rebellion, that the Cushites departed from their original dwelling place in Sumer where Nimrod had built his empire, crossing Arabia and entering into Eastern Africa, where they have dwelt to this day. Carleton Coon notes several times the Negroid appearance in many ethnic stocks in Southern and Western Arabia, evidence for the Cushite migration through Arabia.³ As well, Moses' wife was a Midianite described as an “Ethiopian” (Numbers 12:1), the Hebrew word here being "Kuwsh", which further supports this contention as Midian was a region in northern Arabia. Hence, it is highly unlikely that the Arabs of Mecca, of whom Mohammed belonged, could have traced their lineage clearly back to Ishmael. Many, if not most of them, would trace their ancestry back in large part to the Hamitic line, while Ishmael was a Semite.

But, I digress. This prophecy clearly points to Jesus Christ. Faithful men in Israel recognised Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy. Note their testimony, "Then 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.....Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet." (John 6:14, 7:40) Further Jesus' actions and words demonstrated His fulfillment of this prophecy and office of that Prophet. Just as the Prophet was to have the words of God put into his mouth, so Jesus had this. "As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things" (John 8:28) - "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49) Christ Himself bore testimony to having the words of God from the Father, and following the Father's commands to speak them. And indeed, the Lord also had God the Father's testimony that the people should hearken unto Him. During His transfiguration, the Father spoke from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, hear him." (Mark 9:7) Christ, from the tribe of Judah, was a Jew, raised up from the midst of His brethren. Hence, Jesus Christ was the complete fulfillment of Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 33:2

“And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.”

The Muslim attempt to eisegete Mohammed into the Bible with this verse is one of the more, well, interesting examples we may give. Muslim apologists will often point to this verse, claiming that it is a prophecy about Mohammed. The basis of this belief is their claim that “Paran” is a reference to Mecca, and because there are certain Muslim traditions which depict Mohammed as capturing Mecca with 10,000 Muslim followers, this verse is a prediction of that event.

To begin dealing with this claim, the postulation that Paran can be equated with Mecca must first be examined. Pretty much the sole basis for the identification of Paran with Mecca stems from an incidental comment made by a medieval Muslim geographer named Yaqut al-Hamawi. In the geographical work which he finished around 1225 AD, he wrote,

“Faaraan: After the alif there is a raa' and it ends in a nun. An Arabicized Hebrew word. It is one of the names for Mekkah mentioned in the Torah. It has been said that it is a name for the mountains of Mekkah. Ibn Makulan Abu Bakr Nasr Ibn al-Qaasim Ibn Qudaa`ah al-Qudaa`i al-Faaraani al-Iskandari said "I have heard it is a reference to the mountains of Faaraan, that is to say, the mountains of the Hijaaz. In the Torah God came from Sinaa' and dawned from Saa`iir and became known from Faaraan"; they are the mountains of Filastiin, and it is His sending down of the Injiil upon Isa, peace be upon him, and His revealing from Mount Faaraan the fact of His sending down the Qur'an upon Muhammad, peace be upon him. It is said Faaraan is the mountain of Mekkah; Faaraan is also a village in the region of Sughd, one of the provinces of Samarqand, to whom Abu Mansuur Muhammad Ibn Bakr Ibn Isma`iil al-Samarqandi al-Faaraani traces his origins. This was transmitted from Muhammad Ibn al-Fadl al-Larmaani and Nasr Ibn Ahmad al-Kindi the Qur'anic scholar, from whom Abu al-Hasan Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Muhammad al-Kaaghidhi al-Samarqandi transmitted. Abu Abd Allah al-Qudaa`i said, "Faaraan and al-Tur are two districts in southern Egypt."⁴

It is upon the basis of Yaqut’s testimony that Muslims trumpet this identification and the subsequent apologetic claim. Now, it should be apparent to the discerning reader that there are several problems with relying on the above to try to nail down something as important as a prophecy. Yaqut’s sole source is based upon the hearsay of one man, who says that “the mountains of Faran” (Paran)⁵ was a name for the mountains around Mecca. No explanation is given as to where this identification came from, or why one would not logically place Paran in the Sinai peninsula, where both Mts. Sinai and Seir also exist. As such, his statement is hearsay, and little fit to be evidence for overturning the uniform consensus which geographers and scholars have held for centuries. Further, Yaqut notes that this name is “an Arabicised Hebrew word”. The obvious question is, “Why would Arabs located over 1000 km from Palestine refer to mountains in their heartland with Hebrew names?" One would logically presume that there would be no need to “Arabicise” names for landmarks existing right in the middle of the indigenous Arabian civilisation.

Other problems exist as well. Mecca is, of course, a city, not a mountain, and is actually located in a valley. Deuteronomy 33:2 explicitly states that the LORD is coming from mount Paran, indicating a single peak, not a chain or group of mountains. Yaqut himself identifies Paran as a group of mountains, which does not correlate with the Paran mentioned in the Bible. Further, Yaqut’s exposition is self-contradictory in that he identifies all three of these mountains (Sinai, Seir, and Paran) as “mountains of Filastiin” (Palestine), which again, seems to cast doubt upon his concurrent claim that Paran is Mecca. As such, the statement of Yaqut, which Muslim apologism has rested upon for well-nigh eight centuries, is a very weak foundation upon which to try to construct a Biblical prophecy about Mohammed.

Yaqut’s testimony is further weakened in that either he or his source seems to be the originator of the “Mecca=Paran” equation. Evidence from another much more well-known and well-traveled Muslim geographer contradicts Yaqut’s testimony, indicating that before Yaqut, the identification of Paran with Mecca was not known. Abu Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Abdallah Ibn Idris al-Qurtubi al-Hasani, hereafter known as Al-Idrisi, produced a much more systematic and in-depth geography of the Muslim world of his time, this one written around 1154 AD (or roughly 70 years before Yaqut). In it, he speaks also of Paran, which he refers to as “Faran Ahrun“ (Paran of Aaron)

"This district lies 40 miles from Al Kulzum, and along the sea coast. The city of Faran stands at the bottom of a gulf. It is a small town where certain of the Arabs have their camping ground. Over against Faran is a place where the sea has formed a bay, and beside it is a mountain of very hard rock. The waters surge round this and encircle it, and when the winds rise, the passage thereof is difficult, and no one can accomplish it, except with great effort. Travelers are frequently lost there, unless Allah save and guard them. According to the common saying, this is the sea wherein Pharaoh - Allah curse him! - was drowned."⁶

Al-Idrisi’s identification seems little plausible if one tries to apply it to Mecca. He states that Paran stands at the bottom of a gulf, and indicates that the sea forms a bay next to the city. Mecca is around 80 km inland from the Red Sea, and thus would have no bay next to it. He further states that it is a “small town” where “the Arabs have their camping ground”. At the time of his writing, Mecca was certainly not a small town, and certainly would not have been referred to as a “camping ground” by a Muslim! Further, Al-Idrisi positively nails down the location of Paran in the Sinai peninsula. He comments that the common saying was that the sea on which Paran sat was the sea where Pharaoh was drowned during the attempt to recover his Israelite slaves during the Exodus. Tradition in all three groups, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian, has been that this event occurred in the Gulf of Suez, which is the western finger of the Red Sea that forms a “V” around the Sinai peninsula. Thus, in his mind as well as the minds of his readers at the time, his reference would definitely be to a town on the bank of the Gulf of Suez. Further, he states precisely that Paran was 40 miles (in modern distance units, of course) from Al-Kulzum. Kulzum was an ancient town on the Gulf of Suez that served sometime as a fortress for controlling the canals in the region. Kulzum finds mention in the “Thousand and One Arabian Nights” stories, where it serves as the castle and capital for the Blue King, a king of the Jinn. A more serious identification is made by Burton in his translation and commentary on that literary work, however,

“The old name of Suez-town from the Greek Clysma (the shutting), which named the Gulf of Suez "Sea of Kulzum." The ruins in the shape of a huge mound, upon which Sá'id Pasha built a Kiosk-palace, lie to the north of the modern town and have been noticed by me. (Pilgrimage, Midian, etc.) The Rev. Prof. Sayce examined the mound and from the Roman remains found in it determined it to be a fort guarding the old mouth of the Old Egyptian Sweet-water Canal which then debouched near the town.”⁷

None of this is located even remotely near to Mecca or the Hijaz, but all are located in the Sinai peninsula. The identifying information seems to conclusively identify a site located at or near the headwaters of the Suez finger of the Gulf.

Further, internal evidence from the Bible itself firmly places Paran in the Sinai peninsula. Paran is mentioned on a handful of occasions in the Old Testament, most of which are inconclusive for giving a positive location, but a few of which prove very informative. In I Kings 11:15-18, we see a parenthetical aside detailing the escape of an Edomite royal heir named Hadad to Egypt during the time when David and Joab killed the males of Edom in a campaign. They fled to Egypt for protection with the Pharaoh, and their route is said in this passage to have been from Midian (a region south of Israel around the headwaters of the Gulf of Aqaba, the other finger of the Red Sea) to Paran, and then on to Egypt. Now, it would seem to make little sense for them to flee from Midian to a place 1000 km south, then return by the same route⁸ so as to go to Egypt. However, the placement of Paran near the headwater of the Gulf of Suez would make perfect sense for this passage.

The other passage of interest is Genesis 21:21, which describes the circumstance of Ishmael after he and his mother Hagar were expelled from Abraham’s household. This verse states that he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and that his mother took for him a wife from the women of Egypt. This gives additional evidence for placing Paran in Sinai over towards Egypt. As Hagar herself was Egyptian, it would seem natural that after her expulsion, she would return to the people of her nativity, and thus would approach Egypt. That she took a wife for Ishmael from the Egyptians also suggests proximity to Egypt, as she (being an expelled slave woman) would not have had the resources to send for a woman in a land over 1200 km away, which the populated parts of Egypt would have been from Mecca. As such, the biblical testimony which touches on the location of Paran also contradicts the attempt to locate Paran at Mecca.

Lastly, even without the details of locations, it should be understood that the Muslim apologetic attempt to cast Deuteronomy 33:2 as a prophecy about Mohammed simply makes no sense, either logically or theologically. To begin, the passage is not even uttered in any sort of prophetic way. In fact, it is given in the past tense, it is detailed by Moses as an event which had already occurred. Further, the verse explicitly states that it is the LORD who came from mount Paran. In the Hebrew, this is referring to YHWH, making this a direct reference to God Himself coming down from mount Paran in a picture of anthropomorphy. Unless Muslims wish to equate Mohammed WITH God, then they cannot read this text naturally and still try to find Mohammed in it.

Psalm 45:3-5

"Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee."

It is claimed that this applies to Mohammed because of his supposed status as a prophet, and because of his conquests. In fact, Mohammed is often known in Islam as "The Prophet of the Sword". However, as we see, this passage stipulates that the individual mentioned was to ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness. It has been shown above that Mohammed (at least as he is presented in the traditions) was certainly NOT a righteous man, and that he was not the bearer of truth, as the flawed Qur'an which is attributed to his intermediacy indicates. Mohammed was also not meek before God, meekness being the quality of being submitted to God and serving Him faithfully. Mohammed violated numerous of God's laws (repeatedly), lived in sin, and never put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, which is God's command to us ("..repent ye, and believe the gospel." - Mark 1:15)

Further, when these passages are taken in context, we see these passages referring to God as Jesus Christ. Psalm 45:6 says, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre." This reference to God in v. 6 follows immediately after the text above, and is contextually addressing the conquering hero of vv. 3-5. No Muslim would claim that Mohammed was God, as this would be blasphemy to them. Hence, when taken in context, this passage fails as an attempt to put Mohammed in the Bible.

It DOES, however, indicate the Lord Jesus Christ. This is clearly shown in Hebrews 1:8, "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." This passage quotes Psalm 45:6 and applies it to the Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed, Jesus will return to earth one day with His sword and shall destroy wickedness and will establish His reign and carry out His judgment, being called "THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:11-16). All authority is given to Christ for judgment. "And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." (John 5:27) All the nations will be gathered unto Him, and on the last day, even Mohammed will bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ and acknowledge that He is the Lord! (cf. Philippians 2:11)

Isaiah 21:7

"And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed."

Muslims will contend that this is a prophecy referring to the coming of both Jesus Christ and Mohammed, with Mohammed coming after and therefore bringing a fuller revelation from God. They say this, positing that the chariot of asses refers to Christ's entering Jerusalem on the back of a young colt, and the chariot of camels refers to Mohammed because he always rode a camel.

However, looking at the context of this verse, one sees that it is not a prophecy relating to the coming of anyone. It is part of a vision relating the destruction of Babylon by the Persian empire. The chariot of asses and camels (note, the surrounding context indicates that only one chariot is present, not two) is carrying messengers who spread the word about the fall of Babylon, as indicated in verse 9 of the same chapter, "And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." Note that verse 9 indicates that a chariot (singular) brought the news, not two separate chariots, one drawn by donkeys and one by camels. This verse is a classic example of the Muslim ploy of taking Biblical verses completely out of context to make claims that the Bible supports their theology, when in fact the Bible does not say anything even near what they are claiming.

Matthew 3:2

"...Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Muslims will often claim that this call to repentance made by John the Baptist was indicative of the coming "kingdom of heaven", by which they mean the establishment of the power of Islam, with the Qur'an as the Law of the kingdom. Note though that John said that the kingdom of heaven was "at hand", a term which indicates immediacy, which would not seem to be rightly applied to an event reputed to have occurred over six centuries later. Further, the words of Christ Himself clearly indicate that the kingdom of heaven was already present long before Mohammed was ever born.

Jesus said, "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." (Matthew 12:28) Christ cast out many devils during the course of His earthly ministry, and did so in the power of the Holy Spirit, with whom He was anointed (John 1:32-34, Luke 3:21-22, Mark 1:10, Matthew 3:16). The Qur'an even acknowledges the presence of the Holy Spirit in Christ. "We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers; We gave Jesus the son of Mary clear signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit." (Surah 2:87) Hence, Christ's clear testimony in Matthew 12:28 indicates that the kingdom of heaven WAS already come by the time He had spoken His words, long before the coming of Mohammed and Islam.

Likewise, in Mark 9:1, Christ told His disciples, "Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." This prediction was then fulfilled by the witnessing of the vision of the transfiguration of Christ, who appeared to them with Moses and Elijah in the glorified state. They were translated in this vision to see the glory of the future coming permanent kingdom of God.

Hence, we see that neither the temporal nor the spiritual aspects of the kingdom of God can be in any way related to Mohammed or Islam. The temporal aspects, the power of Christ residing with and in believers on earth, had already come nearly 600 years before Mohammed. The future permanent kingdom in all its infinite glory with believers in their glorified, purified, heavenly bodies, of course, in no wise resembles anything on earth, Islamised or otherwise.

Mark 1:7

"And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose."

Muslims will argue that these words are the words of Christ, referring to the coming of Mohammed. Of course, a simple reading of this verse quite clearly indicates that these words were spoken John the Baptist, as John is described in the verse immediately prior to this passage. Similarly, the parallel passages John 1:15, Matthew 3:1-12, and Luke 3:16 all clearly demonstrate this without a doubt. Additionally, John himself makes it clear that the Lord Jesus was to whom he was referring, as he testifies in John 1:29-30, "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which was preferred before me: for he was before me."

Muslims also try to claim that this passage, then, could still not refer to Christ since Jesus was already in the world. However, John was speaking of Christ coming after him in ministry. As the Gospels bear record, the Lord did not begin His preaching ministry until after John the Baptist had been put in prison, and was not engaged in his own preaching ministry any more (Mark 1:14, Matthew 4:12-17). Thus, the words of John the Baptist quite clear indicate the Lord Jesus Christ (of whom he also said "He must increase, but I must decrease" - John 3:30), not Mohammed.

John 4:21

"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father."

In this verse, Muslims suppose that Christ was declaring that prayers would no longer be made toward Jerusalem, but instead toward Mecca, and that this foretold the coming of the Muslim religion. However, as Christ listed no place to which worship would be directed (and in fact, seems to eschew the whole idea of worship towards any geographic point), the claim that He is referring to Mecca is spurious, supposition based entirely on the Muslim desire for this to be so, rather than on any actual evidence from the text.

In fact, the whole point of this passage in the Bible is that Jesus was telling this woman that true worship would not ritualistically depend on a geographical focus of prayer and worship (as it partly had in the Old Testament, see Daniel 6:10). Instead, with the coming of Christ and the kingdom of God, worship would be true worship when it was done with a right heart and reverence for God, regardless of the location. In verse 23-24 of the same chapter, Christ continued speaking to the woman and said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Christ said, "and now is". He had already abolished what Muslims call qiblah, the focus of prayers. Hence, He certainly did not allude to Mecca becoming qiblah, but abolished the whole notion outright.

Indeed, we must understand that Mecca was not even the original point for qiblah, as has been shown from archaeology and early contemporary source documents. Mosques built in a variety of places from the first two centuries of the Muslim era show qiblah which do not face toward Mecca. Creswell investigated early mosques in Iraq at Wassit and Baghdad which were built during the Umayyad dynasty (661-750 AD). Both of these were oriented such that the direction for prayer was pointed too far north for the object of their qiblah to have been Mecca.⁹ The mosque at Wassit faced 33º too far north, and the one at Baghdad 30º. Instead of facing towards Mecca, these mosques appear to face towards Jerusalem. Even early Muslim writers note that there was apparently some confusion as to the direction in which the mosque should point for prayers. Al-Baladhuri records the tradition that the first mosque built in Kufa, a city in Iraq, faced west (whereas a qiblah towards Mecca would face almost due south).¹⁰ Al-Maqrizi, likewise, reported in the traditions that Amir ibn al-Ass, the first Arab governour of Egypt, prayed in a mosque facing slightly south of east, which again would not be in the direction of Mecca.¹¹ Creswell notes that this mosque of al-Ass, which pointed to a location too far north, was later rebuilt during the governourship of Qurra b. Sharik.¹² Cook and Crone also show that the earliest evidences from tangible sources shows that the sanctuary to which the very early Muslims prayed was too far north to be located in the Hijaz.¹³ Again, these evidences indicate a general direction of qiblah towards Jerusalem. The orientation of Egyptian mosques was recorded by the Syriac patristic writer Jacob of Edessa (d. 708 AD) as facing east towards the "Kaabah" of the "Mahgraye",¹⁴ even though Mecca would be southeast from Egypt. Thus, at least at the beginning of the 8th century, the Muslim sanctuary to which prayer was directed seems to have been Jerusalem, or some point in that locale, not Mecca. Only later, with the added pressure to specifically "Arabicise" the emergent religion and free it from some of its more overtly Jewish trappings, was the sanctuary of the Muslims shifted to Mecca, which was previously a pre-Islamic pagan centre of worship which was retrofitted to serve as the centre of Muslim devotion. Hawting notes that no mosques from the 7th century have been found which point towards Mecca, and he further concludes,

"It seems that the Muslim sanctuary at Mecca is the result of a sort of compromise between a preexisting pagan sanctuary and sanctuary ideas which had developed first in a Jewish milieu. I envisage that Muslim sanctuary ideas originated first in the Jewish matrix, as did Islam itself. At a certain stage in the development of the new religion the need arose to assert its independence, and one of the most obvious ways in which this could be done was by establishing a specifically Muslim sanctuary. The choice of sanctuary would have been governed by already existing sanctuary ideas and when a suitable sanctuary was fixed upon these sanctuary ideas would themselves have been modified to take account of the facts of the sanctuary which had been chosen. It seems likely that the Meccan sanctuary was chosen only after the elimination of other possibilities - that in the early Islamic period a number of possible sanctuary sites gained adherents until finally Mecca became established as the Muslim sanctuary. And it also seems likely that one reason for the adoption of the Meccan sanctuary was that it did approximate to the sanctuary ideas which had already been formed - although they had to be reformulated, the physical facts of the Meccan sanctuary did not mean that already existing notions and terminology had to be abandoned."¹⁵

Thus, at some point after the first decade of the 8th century, the qiblah seems to have been changed to a specifically Arab sanctuary in Mecca, which originally had been a reputed important sanctuary to Hubal. This change in the direction of prayer is recorded in the Qur'an in Surah 2:144, which suggests that this particular ayah was incorporated into the surah at some point later than ~708 AD, after the death of Jacob of Edessa.

The essential point to be gathered from all this, however, is that Jesus Christ certainly was not telling this woman that the direction of prayer would be turned to a sanctuary in the Hijaz. Rather, He was emphasising to her to spiritual and personal nature of true religion, that it was not an act centred upon a geographic locale, but upon heartfelt desire to worship God regardless of location. Mecca is no more important of a city now than Jerusalem, or New York, or London, or even Nome, Alaska, for that matter. For one to be worshipping God in truth means to worship with a heart desiring to please Him, which is attentive to His commands, and which seeks to do what His Word, the Bible, says. Without reverence for God and the Bible, true worship is an impossibility.

John 14:16-17, 26

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.....But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

Muslims contend that in this passage, the Greek parakleton translated as "Comforter", refers to the coming of Mohammed, who fulfilled this when he received the Qur'an from the angel Gabriel, whom Muslims believe is the Holy Spirit.

Several problems arise with this interpretation, however. First, the Comforter is clearly said to be the Holy Ghost. Even with Islam's belief that Gabriel is the Holy Spirit, this wouldn't indicate Mohammed. Second, the Holy Ghost is sent in Christ's name, which Mohammed certainly did not fulfill. Instead, Mohammed came rejecting Christ and His teachings. Mohammed disbelieved that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Incarnate and that He died for our sins and rose again. Because of his disbelief, Mohammed cannot be said to have been sent in Christ's name, in other words, in Christ's express reputation and testimony as the Son of God. Third, the Comforter is said to dwell not only with us, but IN us. This certainly does not apply to Mohammed, who is not only dead (and therefore not WITH us anymore), but also was a physical being incapable of living IN us. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the triune Godhead, is God's very Spirit who dwells within saved, born-again Christian believers. The Holy Spirit seals all true believers at the moment they accept Christ as their Saviour (Ephesians 1:13) and serves, among other things, as their comfort and assurance of salvation until the final redemption at the Lord's return (Ephesians 1:14, 4:30). Fourth, Mohammed did not "bring all things to our remembrance" which Christ had taught, but instead rejected much of the teachings of Christ with which he did not agree. Thus, Mohammed fails to fit this qualification, too.

The work parakleton is a Greek word meaning "helper, comforter, sustainer, advocate". Mohammed certainly did not fit this description. Mohammed sought to destroy those who opposed him, contradicting the notion that he was a helper or sustainer. The Holy Ghost, contrastingly, seeks to call unto Christ all men, working in their hearts, convicting them of sin, and turning them to faith in God (John 16:8-11). The Holy Ghost truly does help and seek to sustain and comfort men. Mohammed sought only to turn people with the sword, if they would not submit to the rule of his man-made religion. Also, the Qur'an denies that any but Allah can be an advocate, and therefore Mohammed could not fulfill that role, by Islam's own teachings. Also, the Comforter had the role of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and to do the work which Christ sent Him to do. "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." (John 16:14-15) Mohammed certainly, as we noted, did not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, but instead glorified himself and the false god Allah. Nor did Mohammed do the work of Christ, but instead opposed the work of Christ through his denial of the deity and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Thus, we see from the passages above that Islam grasps at straws in its attempts to demonstrate Mohammed in the Bible. By relying on passages taken out of context and by trying to squeeze meaning into texts where it does not fit, Muslims seek to falsely authenticate Mohammed as a prophet sent from God. While Islam must rely on textual gymnastics to authenticate Mohammed from the Bible, the same need not be said for the Biblical testimony concerning the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of dozens of EXPLICIT prophecies for which no verbal wrangling is needed. Precise details of the life and death of the Messiah predicted hundreds or thousands of years in advance were fulfilled in the minutest detail by Jesus Christ.

Prophecies Fulfilled by the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ

To begin, let us examine the many prophecies which were fulfilled by the events surrounding the death of Christ.

• Genesis 3:15 - "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." - Spoken to the serpent who had tempted Eve (Satan), and fulfilled by the crucifixion of Christ (see John 19:18, e.g.) where Christ, the seed of the woman, was killed but rose again from the dead (bruising of his heel, not a mortal wound), and in doing so utterly destroyed the power of Satan, who is now merely awaiting his final destruction (the bruising of his head, representing mortal wounding).

• Psalm 22:1 - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" - Fulfilled in Matthew 27:36, "And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

• Psalm 22:2 - "O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." - Fulfilled by the coming of darkness over the whole earth as Jesus cried out from the cross. "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour." (Matthew 27:45)

• Psalm 22:6 - "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." - This was fulfilled when Christ was mocked and despised by the various groups of people while He hung on the cross. (See Matthew 39-44)

• Psalm 22:7-8 - "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." - This was also fulfilled in Matthew 27:42-43 as the chief priests, scribes, and elders mocked Him.

• Psalm 22:16 - "For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." - This was fulfilled through the crucifixion of Christ, which involved the driving of nails through the wrists and ankles of the victim to hold them up on the cross. See also John 21:27, where Jesus commands the disciple Thomas to touch the nail prints in his hands as proof that He really was Jesus risen.

• Psalm 22:18 - "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." - This prophecy was fulfilled when the soldiers who had crucified Christ did indeed part him garments among them, and cast lots for his cloak. (See Matthew 27:35)

• Psalm 31:5 - "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed, O LORD God of truth." - As God, Christ was the only man to walk this earth who could voluntarily commit, or give up, His spirit. "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." (John 10:18) And Christ indeed did give up His spirit at the time of His choosing on the cross in John 19:30. He did not die because of His wounds, He died because He chose to at that moment.

• Psalm 34:20 - "He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken." - This was fulfilled by Christ's expiration on the cross in John 19:30. Because of this, he was already dead when the soldiers came to break the legs of those on the crosses so that they would die faster. As He was already dead, they did not break his legs (John 19:33), and this is explained as the fulfillment of this prophecy (John 19:36). Interestingly, this also hearkens back to the Passover lamb of Exodus 12:46, which was a type of the coming Christ. No bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken, and this was fulfilled by Christ not having any of His bones broken as He was sacrificed for the sins of mankind.

• Psalm 35:11 - "False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not." - This was fulfilled with the bringing of false witnesses to lie about Jesus Christ. (See Mark 14:56)

• Psalm 38:11 - "My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off." - This happened in Luke 23:49, where Christ's acquaintances and relatives stood afar off from Him beholding Him.

• Psalm 41:9 - "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." - This prophecy was fulfilled by the betrayal of the Lord by Judas. Judas had traveled with Christ for three years, had been one of the twelve innermost companions of the Lord. He had eaten bread with Christ, as was explicitly stated in John 13:26. Yet, through all this, he betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ over to His enemies.

• Psalm 69:3 - "I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God." - This prophecy of thirst was fulfilled when the Lord, waiting for the time when He should give up the ghost and finish the work His Father sent for Him to do, said, "I thirst" in John 19:28.

• Psalm 69:19 - "Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee." - This was fulfilled in Matthew 27:28-29 when the Lord was mocked and ridiculed and brought to shame before the council and the soldiers.

• Psalm 69:21 - "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." - In John 19:29, the onlookers gave Jesus Christ vinegar to drink.

• Psalm 109:25 - "I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me, they shaked their heads." - This came to pass in Matthew 27:39-40 when the mockers are describes as "wagging their heads" at Christ.

• Isaiah 50:6 - "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting." - In Matthew 27:26, the Bible records that Pilate had Jesus scourged, and in verse 30, Jesus was spat upon and beaten.

• Isaiah 52:14 - "As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." -

• Isaiah 53:3 - "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." - These words were fulfilled in Mark 15:29-32 when Christ was reviled, rejected, and despised by those who passed by where He was crucified, and indeed, by the two thieves who hung next to Him. In a sense, this prophecy is still being fulfilled today by those who despise, mock, and reject the Lord Jesus Christ and His free gift of salvation.

• Isaiah 53:4-6 - "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes are we healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." - Peter expounds on this fulfillment in I Peter 2:24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." This clearly illustrates perhaps the most central doctrine of the Christian faith: that of the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ died for us, and took the wrath of God against our sins upon Himself. Through His death, when we trust on Him in faith, we receive His own righteousness imputed to us, and are given eternal life. Thus, through His death, we are healed of our spiritual deadness and are freed from the burden of our own iniquities.

• Isaiah 53:7 - "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." - When Jesus was questioned before Pilate in Matthew 27:13-14, He "answered him to never a word." In Luke 23:9, Jesus was also questioned by Herod, where it is recorded "he answered him nothing." Jesus, by His silence before these officials who wielded actual political power, fulfilled this foretale. Jesus was also heralded by John the Baptist in John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John recognised Christ's role as the final, ultimate sacrifice which was to be made for the sins of the whole world. Only God, incarnated as Jesus Christ, could be a perfect, sinless offering to propitiate His own wrath and cover and truly wash away sins from a lowly sinner. Christ, thus, was the fulfillment of the typological picture given by the Passover lamb which was slaughtered to avert God's wrath (see Exodus 12:1-30).

• Isaiah 53:9 - "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." - This came to pass when Jesus' body was given to the rich man Joseph of Arimathea, and was lain in the sepulcher owned by this man. Thus, He was lain in a rich man's tomb.

• Isaiah 52:12 - "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of man, and made intercession for the transgressors." - Mark 15:27-28 records the fulfillment of this prophecy in that Christ was crucified between two thieves, hence, that He was numbered (or reckoned to be with) these transgressors. Also, Christ made intercession for the transgressors when, on the cross, He prayed to the Father, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)

• Daniel 9:26 - "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself..." - This prophecy of Daniel gave the exact date of Christ's death. The prophetic phraseology "week" refers to a period of seven years, and years by prophetic reckoning (such as used in Revelation) are 360 days, not the 365.25 days of our sidereal calendar. Thus, threescore and two weeks (which would be 62 periods of seven years each, or 434 years of 360 days each) beginning at the date of the rebuilding of Jerusalem (cf. Daniel 9:25) which was in 446 BC, would give a date for the death of Christ at 27 AD. From historical records, we can surmise that Christ was born in 4 BC (as this was the year Herod died, which is mentioned to have occurred near after Christ's birth). Christ began His ministry at the age of 30 years, which was the age at which a Jewish priest could begin his ministry, and he ministered for three to three and a half years, so He would have died at the age of 33, in 27 AD. Hence, Daniel's prophecy, given nearly 600 years before the death of Christ, gave the exact year in which the Lord was crucified and rose again from the dead!

• Zechariah 11:12 - "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forebear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." - This foretold the betrayal of the Lord by Judas for thirty pieces of silver, the price which the chief priests payed to him to commit his wicked deed (See Matthew 26:15).

• Zechariah 11:13 - "And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD." - This was fulfilled in Matthew 27:3-7 when Judas, after realising the magnitude of his error and filled with remorse, cast the thirty pieces of silver he had received back to the chief priests in the Temple, which was the house of the Lord. They then used this money to purchase a potter's field."

• Zechariah 12:10 - "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." - This prophecy was met in Luke 23:27 which records that "a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him."

• Zechariah 13:7 - Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones." - This prophecy was doubly fulfilled. Jesus, described as the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls in I Peter 2:25, was indeed smitten when He was crucified. Likewise, just as Jesus foretold to His disciples in Matthew 26:31 that they would be scattered (quoting Zechariah 13:7) the night of His crucifixion, so they were when in Mark 14:50, "they all forsook him, and fled."

Other Prophecies Fulfilled by Christ

In addition to these, the life and person of Jesus Christ fulfilled other prophecies given in the Old Testament.

• Christ's virgin birth - Isaiah 14:7 - "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - The birth of Christ fulfilled this when, by the Mary's own testimony to her virginity, He was born of her. Luke 1:27 describes Mary as a virgin, and Mary herself stated in Luke 1:34, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?". Yet, she conceived by the Holy Ghost and gave birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, just as Isaiah 7:14 said would happen, and this is a sign to all who read and hear of it that God's Word is true and testifies to the unique status of Christ as the God-man, God Incarnate without the sin nature passed down from generation to generation of man. As an aside, the Hebrew word translated as virgin in Isaiah 7:14 is "almah", which refers to something veiled, protected, and is always used to describe a virginal young woman. Likewise, in the New Testament, virgin is translated from the Greek word "parthenos", which also literally means "secluded, protected, veiled and set apart", and describes a woman who has been protected from the attentions of a man. The biological term parthenogenesis comes from the same word, and refers to the reproduction of certain single-celled species without sexual interaction, i.e. "virgin births".

• The Messiah to be Born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 - "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting." - In this passage, it was foretold that the future king of Israel, the Messiah who would one day establish His reign and save His people, would come from Bethlehem. And indeed, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem and was of the lineage of David which sprang from Bethlehem. Christ came to bring men into the kingdom of God, and He will one day return and establish His rulership over Israel and save His people. "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 8:26) Before Christ could save His people, though, He had to die for them and become their sin-sacrifice, the Lamb who took the wrath of God upon Himself in their place. His blood was shed for all mankind, Israel included, and Israel will one day turn and accept Him as their Saviour.

• Herod's Slaughter of the Children of Bethlehem - Jeremiah 31:15 - "Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." - This passage from Jeremiah, in its context, describes the weeping of the women of the tribe of Benjamin when their children were taken from them and deported to Babylon after Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. The historical background behind this context is that Ramah was a town about 5 miles from Jerusalem, which was also near to Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah. When Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, Ramah served as a staging point for the caravans taking the Jewish captives away to Babylon. Thus, the women of Judah lamented their lost children at this place, and are personified by Rahel (Rachel), who was one of the wives of Jacob, and the mother of Benjamin, whose descendents were still associated with the town and region at the time of Jeremiah's writing. This weeping and lamenting for their lost children also served as a type which foresaw a prophetic event fulfilled in the circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ. As Matthew 2:16-18 records, King Herod saw that his royal authority had been flaunted by the wise men who came to worship the Christ. He was angry over this, and was also troubled at the news that another King was born (Matthew 2:3). Herod felt that the Christ child would be a threat to his petty dominion, and therefore determined to kill the child Jesus before He could grow up and become a threat. As a result of this, Herod ordered all male children under the age of two years to be slaughtered in all the area around Bethlehem, which would include Jerusalem and Ramah. As one could reasonably understand, this would cause great sorrow for the women whose children had just been murdered. Thus, this event fulfilled the prophecy uttered by Jeremiah some 600 years before, which had depicted an event which was to be associated with the Messiah.

• The Flight of Jesus' Family to Egypt - Hosea 11:1 - "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." - This prophetic passage was accounted when, upon being warned in a dream of the danger impending from Herod's purge, Joseph took Mary and the Christ child and fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15). Matthew specifically mentions that this event was to set up the fulfillment of the prophecy in verse 15. And indeed, the prophecy that God's Son was to be called out of Egypt was fulfilled when, after Herod's death, God called Joseph to bring Mary and Jesus back to Judea from out of Egypt (Matthew 2:19-23).

• Jesus' Galilean ministry - Isaiah 9:1-2 - "Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did not grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they than dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." - This passage foretold that the ministry of the then-coming Messiah would be in the region of Galilee, a district in northern Israel near the Sea of Galilee and beyond the Jordan, extending toward what was called Decapolis during Roman times. This was roughly the region encompassed in the lands given to the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtali when Joshua divided Canaan among the Israelites after their entry into the Promised Land. Indeed, Galilee was the area where most of Christ's ministry was carried out, other than in Jerusalem itself. The Lord only passed through Samaria, and had very little if anything to do in Judea in the south. Jesus said in John 9:5, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Indeed, the light of Christ shone in Galilee, enlightening the people who had walked in darkness in Zebulon and Naphtali.

• Jesus Declared by God the Father to be Son of God - Psalm 2:7 - "I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." - This prophecy was fulfilled when God the Father spoke as Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, as witnessed by Peter, James, and John. "..This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." (Matthew 17:5). Christ was declared by the Father to be His Son, establishing Christ's full deity.

• Jesus Spoke in Parables - Psalm 78:2-4 - "I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." - This was fulfilled in the way that Jesus preached to the multitudes. He taught in parables, which were not merely stories designed to elucidate points or demonstrate practical applications, but had the specific purpose of concealing truth from the unbelieving (Matthew 13:10-16). Those who opposed Christ and did not believe in Him could not understand the words that He spoke. "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not; from him shall be taken away even that he hath." (Matthew 13:12) To those who had faith, knowledge and understanding were added in abundance, but to those who did not have faith in Christ, the truth that they had heard from Him was lost completely on them. This parallels the passage in I Corinthians 2:12-14 which tells us that a spiritual (saved, believing) person can understand and learn from God's Word, while a natural (lost, saved, unbelieving) person cannot receive or understand what the Bible says. Jesus' teaching in parables fulfilled the prophecy in the Psalms, as is pointed out explicitly in Matthew 13:34-35).

The biblical testimony from the Hebrew scriptures is quite clear. Jesus Christ was the unique fulfillment of dozens of prophecies given by God. The odds of one single person fulfilling each and every one of these prophecies, as Jesus has done, is literally so astronomically remote as to be absolutely impossible. Yet, He did. While Muslims have to scrabble for convoluted explanations to try to find Mohammed in the Biblical record, Jesus Christ is quite clearly shown to have been predicted as the Messiah who was to come for Israel and for the whole world.

End Notes

(1) - J.F. Walvoord and R.B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p.43
(2) - W. Cooper, After the Flood, Appendix 2
(3) - C. Coon, The Races of Man, various places
(4) - Yaqut al-Hamawi, Mu'jam al-Buldan, Vol. III, p.834
(5) - Faran in Arabic is rightly equated with Paran. In Hebrew, both the “p” and the “f“ are represented by the letter “Pe“. The pronunciation of this letter depends upon the presence or lack of the Dagesh Lene within the letter. If it lacked the Dagesh, as it would in unpointed Hebrew scripts (pointing did not arise until the medieval period), then it would indicate the “f” phenome. Further, Arabic does not have the "p" phoneme except in certain loan words. Early Muslims, relatively unfamiliar with the contextual rules of Hebrew that would indicate how to pronounce an unpointed Hebrew text and not naturally using the "p" phoneme anywise, may have inadvertently altered the name Paran to Faran. We can see this phenomenon occurring also in Yaqut’s passage with the the alteration of Palestine to Filistiin.
(6) - Al-Idrisi, Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fi Ikhtiraq al-Afaq, p.2; from G. Le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems, p. 440
(7) - The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, trans. R.F. Burton, Vol. VII, Tale #154, FN #419
(8) - Which they would have to do. The Red Sea was historically known for its treacherous waters, and was little used for traffic until the time of the Romans, whose ponderous ships could better sustain the rough seas. Thus, their route to Egypt would have to have been by land, back exactly the way they came, to get to the Egyptian court in the northern part of that land.
(9) - K.A. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, p. 137ff
(10) - Ahmad ibn Jabir al-Baladhuri, Kitab Futuh al-Buldha, ed. de Groeje, p. 276
(11) - Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi, al-Mawa`iz wa al-i`tibar fi dhikr al-khitat wa al-athar, 1326:6
(12) - K.A. Creswell, Muslim Architecture of Egypt, p. 150
(13) - M. Cook and P. Crone, Hagarism: The Making of the Muslim World, p. 23
(14) - see W. Wright, A Short History of Syriac Literature, p. 604
(15) - G. Hawting, "The Origins of the Muslim Sanctuary at Mecca", Studies in the First Century of Islamic Society, ed. G.H.A. Juynboll, pp. 27-28