Deuteronomy 18:22

The context

This chapter sets out the provision for a prophet like Moses and warns against divination and against speaking in the name of other gods. The test given here is retrospective and public: a word is known to be false when the event does not occur. It is addressed to a community that must discriminate.

What it establishes

It establishes that claims to speak for God are answerable to outcomes, and that presumption is named as the offense rather than mere error. It gives the community a criterion it can actually apply.

What it does not establish

It is not an exhaustive test. The criterion covers failed prediction; it says nothing about true prophets whose words are conditional, delayed, or unverifiable, and it cannot distinguish a successful false prophet. Read as a complete method, it proves too much and too little.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Biblical Prophecy? Give me a break – all these ‘pre-enlightenment folk’ were a dime a dozen. Ever heard of Nostradamus?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.