7. Christ's supposed prediction of the coming of Muhammad.

There are a considerable number of passages in the Bible which Muhammadan controversialists endeavour to prove to be prophecies of Muhammad. But we have here to deal with only one small series of verses, since only in one place in the Qur'an do we find a clear assertion that Christ told His disciples to look for Muhammad's appearance; and it is to certain verses in St. John's Gospel that he evidently refers. In Surah LXI., As Saff, 6, Muhammad writes thus:—

"And when Jesus, Son of Mary, said, ‘O Children of Israel, verily I am the Apostle of God unto you, confirming what was before Me of the Law, and proclaiming good tidings of an Apostle who shall come after Me: his name is Ahmad.’"

The reference here is to the coming of the Paraclete or "Comforter" spoken of in John xiv. 16, 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7. We have already ¹ pointed out that Muhammad was misled by some ignorant but zealous proselyte or other disciple, who confounded the word Παράκλητος used in these verses with another Greek word περικλυτός, which might, without a very great stretch of the imagination, be interpreted by the Arabic word Ahmad, "the greatly praised," only, unfortunately for Muhammad, περικλυτός is not the word used, and by no possible effort

can the term employed by our Lord be translated Ahmad. "A little knowledge," even of Greek, may be "a dangerous thing;" and certainly the proverb was never better illustrated than in the Qur'an. Of course everyone who reads the passages in St. John's Gospel at all carefully will perceive that they contain no prophecy of any coming Prophet, and cannot possibly be made to suit any mere human being. Moreover, every Christian knows how the promise was fulfilled (Acts ii. 1-11). It is quite a mistake, on the other hand, to fancy that Muhammad claimed to be the Holy Spirit, whom the Muslims confound with Gabriel.

Before leaving this subject it may be as well to remind the reader that Muhammad was not the first to appeal to these verses as a prophecy of himself. It is well known that Mani ¹ or Manes, renowned in Persian fable as a wonderful painter, made the same claim to be the "person" referred to by Christ. Only Mani distinctly claimed to be the "Paraclete," probably (like Muhammad) in order to win over ill-informed Christians to his side. This is remarkable, for he rejected the historical Jesus and invented another for himself, who neither suffered nor died (Jesus impassibilis). A third point in which he resembled Muhammad was his claim to be the last and greatest of the pro-