Yet like Matthew, Luke in his own way also shows Jesus as being very much after the manner of Moses as well. Luke, however, deals far less than Matthew with Jesus as teacher and interpreter of Mosaic Torah. Luke’s emphasis is on Jesus as the prophet, like Moses, whose emergence Deuteronomy 18:15 had predicted. Jesus in Luke affirms his prophetic office (Luke 7:26), but parallels with Moses have already emerged in Luke 6:17-35. This material in Luke is usually called the Sermon on the Plain. It parallels Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount except the emphasis is not on Moses the lawgiver, as in Matthew, but on Moses the prophet. Luke’s version is much more concise and is also noted not simply for its blessings but its curses as well. This is because Moses famously predicted both blessings and curses as alternative eventualities in Deuteronomy 29-31.

There are other similarities to Moses the prophet as well. In Luke 9:51-62, Jesus sends “messengers before his face,” an action that recalls Exodus 23:20. The desire of the disciples to stop a prophet rivaling Jesus also recalls an exchange between Moses and Joshua in Num 11:26-30. Jesus also sends 12 (Luke 9:1-17; a number indicative of the twelve tribes of the whole Israel first given allotments by Moses) and 70 (Luke 10:1) which echoes Moses appointment of 70 (Num 11:16-17). Jesus’ allusion to the “finger of God” is a phrase that only occurs in the Bible in the context of Moses’ prophetic power in Exodus 8:19.

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