Prophets & prophecy

Was Jesus a prophet like the others?

Islam honours Jesus as one of the greatest prophets, alongside Noah, Abraham, Moses and Muhammad ﷺ. Christianity says he is a prophet but much more than one. This topic looks at how the Gospels describe Jesus, how his life compares with the prophets before him, and what the Qur’an says.

1The question

Was Jesus a prophet in the line of the earlier prophets, or something more?

2What Christians believe

Christians believe Jesus is a prophet, but also the Son through whom God has spoken his final word: “God … spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). He is prophet, priest and king in one person.

Christians point to what sets him apart: his virgin birth, his authority to forgive sins, his death for the sins of the world and his resurrection. On this view “prophet” is true but not enough.

3What the texts say

What people called him

And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
Matthew 21:11 · KJVRead in context →
And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
Luke 24:19 · KJVRead in context →

What Jesus said about himself

Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Luke 13:33 · KJVRead in context →
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
Mark 6:4 · KJVRead in context →

How Peter described him

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Acts 2:22 · KJVRead in context →

The Christian reading

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hebrews 1:1 · KJVRead in context →
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Hebrews 1:2 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Geza Vermes (Jesus the Jew, 1973) argued that the historical Jesus is best understood as a Jewish prophet and holy man of Galilee.

Larry W. Hurtado (Lord Jesus Christ, 2003) argues that very early Christian worship already treated Jesus as more than a prophet, placing him alongside God in prayer and praise.

Scholars agree that the Gospels often describe Jesus as a prophet, that Jesus speaks of himself in those terms, and that the claim that he is more than a prophet is developed most fully in John and in the letters.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an names Jesus among the prophets God inspired, teaches that Muslims make no distinction between them, and lists his miracles as signs given by God’s leave:

Lo! We inspire thee as We inspired Noah and the prophets after him, as We inspired Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as We imparted unto David the Psalms;
Qur’an 4:163 · PickthallRead in context →
Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.
Qur’an 2:136 · PickthallRead in context →
And will make him a messenger unto the Children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah's leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah's leave. And I announce unto you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Lo! herein verily is a portent for you, if ye are to be believers.
Qur’an 3:49 · PickthallRead in context →

For Muslims, every prophet was a human being chosen by God, given signs and a message, and sent to call people to worship God alone. Jesus is one of the greatest of them, the Messiah and a word from God, but he belongs to that same line.

6Objections and responses

“Jesus was born of a virgin, so he must be more than a prophet.”

Response: The Qur’an affirms the virgin birth (3:47), but compares Jesus to Adam, who had neither father nor mother (3:59). A miraculous birth shows God’s power, not that the child is God.

“Hebrews says God spoke through the prophets before, but now through his Son.”

Response: Those are the words of a later letter whose author is unknown. In the Gospels, Jesus describes himself as a prophet (Luke 13:33), and his disciples call him “a prophet mighty in deed and word” (Luke 24:19). Muslims take those earlier words as the measure.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that Jesus was a prophet, that the people around him called him one, and that he did great miracles. Christians believe he is also the divine Son. Muslims believe he is one of the greatest prophets, a man chosen and honoured by God like the prophets before him.

See the related topics on how his followers described him, his miracles, and the comparison with Adam.

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