---
title: Acts 7:37
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-7-37/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-7-37.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 7:37
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 7:37

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel: 'God will raise up for you from among your brothers a prophet like me.'"

## JW Usage

JWs accept that Stephen identifies Jesus as the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15 in his Sanhedrin sermon. They do not typically press the exegetical implication — that the chapter's speaking role is filled by the Son in the New Testament — because that reading constrains later institutional claims to interpretive authority.

## Protestant Usage

Stephen, defending the gospel before the Sanhedrin moments before his martyrdom, identifies Jesus as the prophet Moses predicted. This is the second apostolic application of Deuteronomy 18:15 in Acts (Peter in Acts 3:22 is the first), and the convergence is decisive: across apostolic preaching, the singular eschatological prophet of Moses' prediction is Jesus. Stephen pays for the identification with his life. Pair Acts 7:37 with John 6:14 and 7:40 (the gospel crowds also identifying Jesus as "the Prophet" with the article — the Deut 18 figure they were waiting for) and Hebrews 1:1-2 (the prophetic age closed in the Son). The doorstep insight: when the apostles cite Deuteronomy 18, they cite it Christologically. Any institution today that occupies the speaking role of that chapter has to displace Christ from the slot the apostles assigned him.

## NWT Issue

Notably, NWT does NOT insert "Jehovah" here even though Stephen is paraphrasing the same Deuteronomy 18 passage that Acts 3:22 quotes. The Greek text reads "ho theos" (God) rather than kyrios, so the Tetragrammaton-restoration logic does not trigger. The result is a small but observable inconsistency in the NWT's NT method — Peter's citation gets "Jehovah", Stephen's paraphrase does not, even though both refer to the same Mosaic original.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Deuteronomy 18 — A Prophet Like Moses, Singular and Eschatological](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/deuteronomy-18-prophet-like-moses.md) — Acts 3:22 — Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet [Eschatology]