In Jude 1:9 (NIV) it is written:
But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, did not dare to condemn him for libel, but said: “The Lord rebuke you!”
Why was there a dispute over the body of Moses? And how did this dispute arise, if it did happen? What (if anything) is known about this?
Origen states that the Letter of Jude picked up the story of Michael and the devil arguing over the body of Moses from a Jewish text called the Ascension of Moses.
Origin, De Principiis 3.2.1
Now we have to note, according to the statements of Scripture, how opposing powers, or the devil himself, compete with the human race, inciting and abetting men to sin. And, first of all, in the book of Genesis, it is described that the serpent seduced Eve; about whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a small treatise, of which the apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when arguing with the devil about the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve’s transgression.
References to this apocryphal story are found in early Christian literature.
The text we have, which is titled The Ascension of Moses, however, does not contain this particular event. It may be that our text is missing the section containing the story of the dispute over the body of Moses, or we may have misidentified which text we have.
Richard Bauckham, arguing that the various references to the story are independent of the Jude Letter, attempts to reconstruct the key points of the story (Word Biblical Commentary: Jude, 2 Peter, 65-76, bold is mine):
Joshua accompanied Moses to Mount Nebo, where God showed Moses the promised land. Moses then sent Joshua back to the people to inform them of Moses’ death, and Moses died. God sent the archangel Michael to take the body of Moses to another place and bury it there, but Samma’el, the devil, opposed him, disputing Moses’ right to an honorable burial. The text may also have said that he wished to bring the body to the people to make it an object of worship. Therefore, Michael and the devil got into a dispute over the body. The devil accused Moses of murder, because he wounded the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. But this accusation was no better than the slander (βλασφημία) against Moses, and Michael, not tolerating this slander, said to the devil: “May the Lord rebuke you, devil!” At that, the devil took flight and Miguel took the body to the place ordained by God, where he buried it with his own hands. So no one saw the burial of Moses.
The basic form of the story seems influenced by Zechariah 3. Ruth Reese (2 Peter and Jude, 50) summarizes the analogies:
The scene in Zec 3:1-5 is a dispute in which the high priest Joshua is accused by Satan, and the angel of the Lord acts as God’s emissary, while the Lord Himself rebukes Satan using the words that will later appear in Judas: “The Lord rebuke you.” Here we see both the angel as God’s messenger or representative (Michael’s role in the dispute in Judas), and we see Satan as the accuser, one who forms one side of the dispute. This is part of the role of the devil in Jude 9.
According to the NIV footnotes at BibleGateway
Jude 1:9 Jude refers to the Jewish Testament of Moses.
The text of this book, also known as the Assumption of Moses or the Ascension of Moses, has been lost to time and no manuscript remains. However, Origen of Alexandria commented on it in Book III, Chapter 2 of De principiis stating:
Now we have to note, according to the statements of the Scriptures, how opposing powers, or the devil himself, compete with the human race, inciting and abetting men to sin. And, first of all, in the book of Genesis, it is described that the serpent seduced Eve; about whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a small treatise, of which the apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when arguing with the devil about the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve’s transgression.
Moses did not die. Like Elijah, he was taken to heaven. This was necessary, so that when he appeared on the mount of transfiguration with Elijah, they could pass the priesthood keys (by ordination) to Peter, James, and John.
Since Christ was still alive, and had not yet accomplished the resurrection (of which He was the “firstfruits”), both Elijah and Moses had to be translated and retain their physical bodies to perform this ordinance.
When the devil realized this, he tried to kill Moses…and the “dispute” between him and Michael was over Moses’ right to retain his body, as a translated being.
Strong’s Gr. 4983: soma – “body, flesh, the body of the church”.
Jude vs.5,
“But I want to remind you, even though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people from the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.” (NKJV)
Room. 12:5,
“So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (NKJV)
The body of Moses was all those who had been taken out of Egypt, in the exodus from Egypt. The dispute with the devil that Judas refers to was most likely about the entire congregation in the desert of the exodus, since the people were still in the welfare-of-slaves mentality and constantly sinned against God; and many died because of their sins.
Moses was the leader of the tribes of Israel whom God had saved from Egyptian slavery. He was the type, the prefigured Christ. The body of Moses was the type, the foreshadowing of the saved in the body of Christ.
Other commentators make the argument that the Hebrews referred to the law as the body of the law, or the body of Moses.
“so the decalogue F20 is said to be “the body of the Shema”, or “Hear, Israel”, (Deuteronomy 6:4), so says Clement of Alexandria F21, that there are some who consider the body of the Scriptures, the words and names, as if they were, (to swma tou mwsewv), “the body of Moses.” Source: John Gill’s Bible Exposition, Jude 9
So these make the case that v. 9 referred to an ongoing battle and Satan’s breaking of the laws of Moses.
Since the general context of Jude is the exhortation to contend for the faith (vs.3), and he reminds them how those in the exodus who did not believe were destroyed (vs.5), and lists other examples of those who gave themselves themselves. Beyond immorality, it seems best to relate v. 9 with the congregation (body) of the tribes of Israel in the desert of the exodus.
Because there is a law in this land that says that whoever is born here needs to be buried in the earth:
Then the dust will return to the ground as before, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
– Esslesiastes 12:7 (KJV)
So, Satan was talking about this law to Michael regarding the body of Moses, and finally God Himself buries the body of Moses. Perhaps Satan was not happy when God brought Enoch alive from this earth without dying.
But Esslesiastes 12:7 is not bound to happen, since, like Enoch, believers will be raptured at the secret coming of Christ, without dying on this earth.
The “body of Moses” is not speaking of the literal body of Moses, but rather it speaks of the body of writings of Moses that was being disputed.
The “body of Moses” = the writings of Moses.
Judas 1: 8-10 KJV (8) Likewise, these filthy dreamers also contaminate the flesh, despise dominion and speak ill of dignities. (9) However, the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed over the body of Moses, he did not dare to launch against him an accusation of cursing, but said: The Lord rebuke you. (10) But these speak ill of what they do not know; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Jesus did not accuse the Father of the leaders of the Jews in John 5.
The dispute was over the writings (the “body” of writings, so to speak) of Moses: “if you do not believe his writings, how can you believe my words?”
If they didn’t believe Moses, how could they believe in Jesus because Moses wrote about him? The Lord rebuked them through the writings of Moses, as they did not truly believe in what Moses wrote. The Father gave Moses what he wrote…he received the writings of God.
John 5: 42-47 KJV (42) But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. (43) I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. (44) How can you believe, those who receive honor from others, and do not seek the glory that comes from God alone? (45) Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. (46) Because if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. (47) But if you do not believe his writings, how can you believe my words?
Jesus is the “Messenger (angel) of the covenant” whom we seek and in whom we delight. He’s coming now. Jesus comes in flesh…our mortal flesh…to give us his eternal life.
We must always remember to let brotherly love continue (the covenant of brotherly love) and entertain the “strangers” sent by Him and the words (the words of Jesus).
Malachi 3:1 KJV (1) Behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to the temple of him, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire in: behold, he will come, says the LORD of hosts.
“Michael” means “who is like God”?
This is what the leaders of the day did not like when they accused him of making himself equal with God the Father and healing on the Sabbath.
John 5: 15-18 KJV (15) The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (16) That is why the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath. (17) But Jesus answered them: My Father works until now, and I work. (18) Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
They did not react with brotherly love. He came to his own and his own did not receive him.
Who is like God”?
We must be holy as God is holy and listen to the revelation of Jesus Christ, who opens the Scriptures (such as the writings of Moses) to our understanding at the end of this age. The Son of God comes to give us an understanding so that we can listen and show that we know the Father by doing his will when we listen to his words by opening the Scriptures to our…