sent. It cannot (Muslims say) refer to the Greeks, to whom St. Paul and the other Apostles of Christ went, for they were wise and learned. But this verse cannot be said to refer to any prophet at all. It tells how God will call the Gentiles, not the Greeks only, but the Arabs, the English, and all others, to become one spiritual brotherhood in Christ. This is the explanation of the passage given in I Pet. ii. 9, 10: compare Eph. ii. 11-13. As for the wisdom of the Greeks, it was not true wisdom, for they had no knowledge of the One True God, and the very beginning of wisdom consists in revering Him (Ps. cxi. 10; Prov. i. 7; ix. 10). "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (I Cor. iii. 19).

4. Deut. xxxiii. 2. Here the words, "The LORD came from Sinai" are said to refer to the giving of the Law to Moses: "And rose from Seir unto them;" to the "descent" of the Injil: while "He shined forth from Mount Paran" is claimed as a prophecy of the bestowal of the Qur'an, since it is said that one of the hills near Mecca is called by a similar name. But the context shows that Moses is here making no reference either to the Injil or to the Qur'an. He is reminding the Israelites how widely God's glory was seen when they were encamped near Mt. Sinai. The map shows that Sinai, Seir, and Paran¹ are three mountains quite close to one another. They are in the Sinaitic Peninsula, many hundreds of miles from Mecca. This is clear from the other places where Paran is mentioned (Gen. xiv. 6; Num. x. 12; xii. 15; xiii. 3; Deut. i. 1: I Kings xi. 18).

5. Ps. x1v. is said to be a prophecy regarding Muhammad, since he is called "the Prophet with the sword", and it is thought that verses 3-5 are especially applicable to him. But there are two answers, either one of which alone would suffice to refute this theory. One is that in ver. 6 we read, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." Muslims never claim that

Muhammad was God. The other is that in Heb. i. 8, 9, it is clearly stated that ver. 6 is an address to Christ. The "King's daughter" of ver. 13 is the spiritual bride of Christ, that is, the Christian Church (compare Rev. xxi. 2), and the foes defeated are Satan and all his hosts and those men whom he has stirred up to oppose Christ's Gospel (see Rev. xix. 11-21). Other similar prophecies about Christ are found in Pss. ii, lxxii, cx. Probably first of all the psalm had reference to Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter (I Kings iii. 1), and this wedding is taken as a type of the spiritual union between Christ and His Church.

6. Ps. cxlix. is also claimed as a prophecy about Muhammad. The "New song" (ver. 1) is said to be the Qur'an, and the "two-edged sword" (ver. 6) suits the "Prophet with the sword". 'Ali too had such a sword, and used it in Muhammad's service. The "king" in ver. 2 is said to be Muhammad. But the Muslims do not use singing in their worship, and the Qur'an cannot be described as in any sense a "song". The sword is not said to be in the king's hands, but in that of the Israelites, and with it they were to avenge themselves upon their enemies. The "king" in ver. 2 is in the first part of the verse said to be the Creator, and in ver. 4 He is called the LORD. In no sense can it be said that Muhammad was King of Israel. Nor could the Israelites "rejoice" in him, as we shall see, if we remember how he treated the Banu Nadhir, the Banu Qainuqa', the Banu Quraizah and other Jewish communities.

7. Some refer chapter v. 16, of the Song of Songs, to Muhammad, simply because in the Hebrew the word mahamaddim, "delights," "delightfulnesses," occurs there, and is derived from the same root. But we find that the word in Hebrew is a common, and not a proper noun, as the use of the plural here shows. The same word occurs again as a common noun in Hosea ix. 6, 16; I Kings xx. 6; Lam. i. 10, 11; ii. 4; Joel iv. 5; Isa. lxiv. 10; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 19; Ezek. xxiv.