In this post I would like to dissect the claim made by Christianity that Jesus was somehow a prophet like Moses and even greater than Moses in both character and deeds.- Moses was born to normal human parents, while Jesus was born to a virgin who was made pregnant by G-d while betrothed to a man. That’s very unlike Moses, a mortal human being who had to overcome his weaknesses to submit himself to G-d, and was not a “100% G-d and 100% man” sinless superman capable of amazing feats. While Jesus also called himself a prophet (Luke 4:24), in the Hebrew Bible G-d always used normal, often flawed human beings to be prophets to His people. G-d never acted as His own prophet and servant to Himself. Being G-d in the flesh, Jesus was not a prophet like Moses.
- Throughout the Torah, we have G-d constantly speaking to Moses, including “face to face” (meaning, intimately) as a friend (Exodus 33:11). We have G-d’s own words recorded which were spoken to Moses. What’s more, all of the people, all of the Israelites and the Gentiles who left Egypt alongside them, all heard G-d’s voice from the mountain. Does Jesus match this? Even though Jesus is called “Son of G-d” in the NT, and not just a friend like Moses was, the only thing we have from G-d saying to Jesus in the gospels are a few affirmations of Jesus’ quasi-divine status. G-d supposedly said “This is my Son, listen to him”. That’s it! No conversations between Jesus and G-d, no face-to-face talks.
- In the Torah, G-d did amazing things through Moses before ALL of Israel and as I already noted, the whole of Israel heard G-d’s mighty voice. Again, all of Israel, both good, bad and indifferent, saints and sinners, all of them witnessed G-d’s approval of Moses’ authority confirmed time and time again. There was no doubt that G-d was with Moses – and when the people rebelled against G-d and Moses in spite of all that evidence, G-d again confirmed and reconfirmed Moses in the sight of all the people. All of them ate manna from heaven and all of them crossed the sea on a dry seabed. When G-d did miracles through Moses, everyone for miles and miles around him was an eyewitness. Jesus, on the other hand, was known only to a few, heard and seen by only a few, and even a smaller number of people witnessed any healing miracles he is said to have performed. Yet, the whole of Israel was accused of “unbelief in Jesus”. In the New Testament (as opposed to the Hebrew Bible), the “unbelief in Jesus” displaced idolatry as the greatest possible sin against G-d.
- When Moses was around, all of the Jewish people were gathered around him together. On the other hand, during the first century CE, only a small percentage of Jews actually lived in the Land of Israel. The rest, the majority of Jews lived elsewhere, throughout the Roman empire, in Babylon and other regions of the world. The Diaspora Jewry far outnumbered Jews living in the Land. The Jerusalem Temple leadership were puppets selected and controlled by Rome and were hardly representative of the Jewish people. Nonetheless, the New Testament authors and the religion which used their work blamed all of Israel for rejecting Jesus as a nation.
- After his resurrection, for some mysterious reason, Jesus seems to have chosen to only appear to those few who actually promoted the veneration of him to others (including Paul, who never met Jesus, except in a vision nor ever quoted his teachings in his own writings). Unlike Moses, who was known as a prophet of G-d to all Israelites, it appears that only a tiny number of Jews living in Palestine knew of Jesus directly. No contemporary accounts of him have ever been found. Jewish philosopher Philo, Jesus’ contemporary who wrote extensively about Judaism of the day, is completely silent about Jesus. Unlike Moses, Jesus recorded no words of his own for people to read. People were simply asked to trust his inner circle retell stories about Jesus.
- Did Jesus give any new laws, a new Torah? No, unless you count the following statement: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35). Well, how did Jesus love them? If one says that he died for them, well Jesus said this command before he died. Moses, on the other hand, was willing to forfeit not only his temporal life like Jesus was willing, suffering pain only for a few hours (much less than others who were crucified), after which he fully expected to be resurrected in a state better than his previous one in a matter of only a few days (and even predicting that!). No, Moses was willing to take a far bigger risk, a mere human decided to confront G-d Himself and request to be blotted out of G-d’s Book of Life for the sake of his brothers, the people of Israel: “But now, please forgive their sin–but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Exodus 32:32) Now, that’s love!
- G-d gave though Moses instructions for Israel, telling them how to test whether a prophet is from G-d. If the things a prophet foretells do not come to pass, that prophet is false and to be rejected. Jesus, on the other hand, has made blatant false prophecies regarding his own return within the lifetime of his disciples and thus failed the prophet test which G-d gave through Moses to Israel.
- And finally, while Christianity elevates Jesus to divine status equal to G-d and worships Jesus as a deity, Moses would have been absolutely appalled and grief-stricken if anyone had even attempted to worship him (or any other creature or thing) instead of the G-d who sent him.
Daily Minyan 
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