Islam - Part 13b: Muhammad in our Bible? PART 2

In part one we discuss the two most popular choices for Scripture passages that Muslims claim speak of Muhammad, their prophet.

The common problem with the way Muslims handle those verses, though, is that they try to make the text conform to their expectation.  Instead of understanding what the words mean and what they intend to convey, they do their best to read them as prophecies about Muhammad.

In the case of the passage from Deuteronomy, they don't consider the notion of a "prophet" in light of Old Testament context.  They assume an Islamic context.

For example, in the Old Testament, a "prophet" is anyone who prophesies because the Spirit of Yahweh rests upon him (or her!).

The Old Testament speaks of prophetesses (Judg. 4:4) and whole groups of prophets at once (1 Sam. 10:5), and neither of these cases aligns with the Muslim notion of prophethood.

However, the real problem lies in the Islamic interpretation of "from among their brethren".  They fail to realize that this CANNOT be referring to Ishmaelites.

Every time the Bible uses that phrase, it means "countrymen". It’s always talking about close kinsmen or clansmen. It never means anything as far off as a completely different people group that’s only related through some distant ancestor way back. 

In fact, Deuteronomy defines it for us: 

[Deu 17:14-15 LSB]  “When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ [15]  you shall surely set a king over you whom Yahweh your God chooses, one from among your brothers you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother.

The text defines the word for us: A brother from among the Hebrews is a Hebrew. He cannot be a foreigner, and the Ishmaelites were foreigners. This text cannot be about Muhammad.

Looking at the passage from John 16, Muslims ignore the counter-evidence that simply does not allow their interpretation. 

The Greek word used was parakletos and NOT periklutos, no matter how much Muslims wanted Yeshua to use the Greek equivalent to Muhammad, that greek word is not in the text. In fact, pariklutos is not used in all of Scripture!
Yeshua IS the parakletos!
[1Jn 2:1-2 LSB]  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [parakletos] with the Father, Yeshua Christ the righteous; [2]  and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Yeshua is the One who stands in for us, the Helper who steps in and speaks up for us when we need it. Not some guy who shows up hundreds of years later.

[Joh 14:17 LSB]  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. You know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

How could this be Muhammad?  Muhammad was not already with them (the Disciples), nor could he possibly be in them.  In context, it is impossible to conclude that the parakletos from John 14–16 is Muhammad.