A Prophet like Moses: Prophecy and Canon in Early Judaism and Christianity

This dissertation examines the scriptural concept of the “prophet like Moses,” both in its original context in Deuteronomy 18:15–22 and in its reception in the Hebrew Bible, early Judaism, and nascent Christianity. First, it argues that the portrayal of Moses as a prophet like Moses is a Deuteronomic innovation, bound up with the attempt to secure normativity in revelation. Deuteronomy associates Moses with prophecy in order to prohibit all non-Mosaic sources of revelation. The sole legitimate source of divination to which Israel has recourse is a Mosaic prophetic office. Second, after the exile the Deuteronomistic writers transform this this office into an authorized pre-exilic Mosaic prophetic succession, culminating in Jeremiah. Their distinctive description of the prophets as Yhwh’s “servants” reflects and is dependent this interpretation of Deut 18:15–22. Third, the dissertation demonstrates that Deuteronomy’s redefinition of prophecy as Mosaic shapes the discourse around prophecy in Second Temple Judaism. It argues that Hellenistic scribes posited the cessation and deferral of the Mosaic prophetic succession, so that the Mosaic prophetic office became a feature of the past and future, and not the present. The absence of Mosaic prophets in the present was balanced by ascribing such status to an increasing number of figures in Israel’s scriptural traditions (most notably Joshua) and, in some cases, holding to an eschatological interpretation of Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. Fourth, the dissertation examines early Christian interaction with Deut 18:15–22 in Luke-Acts and the gospel of John. It argues that extensive debates over Jesus’ potential status as prophet like Moses was a feature of late first-century Christianity’s struggle for legitimation within its Jewish context. The dissertation therefore demonstrates that from its origin in Deuteronomy through its reception up to the first century CE, the concept of the prophet like Moses has a norm-constructing potential that would influence early Jewish and Christian discourse around prophecy and prophetic claimants.