NOTES for Jud 1:9

In his message, Jude mentions a certain dispute between the head of the angelic hierarchy, the archangel Michael, and Satan about the body of Moses. About what dispute is it? In the biblical books there is no mention on such a dispute. And the Bible does not mention the body of Moses. As we see, the apostle addresses in this case not the Holy Scripture, but certain folk legends fixed in the Jewish tradition. Nothing is really said in the biblical books where is buried Moses, is mentioned there only his death somewhere in Transjordan.

The absence of the tomb, particularly in the case of a religious leader of this scale, is an extremely rare phenomenon in the antiquity. The national memory couldn’t accept at all that the tomb of Moses gets lost in the steppes of the Transjordan. Perhaps that is why appeared the legend according to which Moses, quite as Elijah, did not die, but was taken to heaven alive. And, as was supposed, will return with Elijah shortly before the coming of the Messiah to testify of the closeness of the day of Judgment.

The dispute about the body of Moses, about which speaks Jude, was probably connected to one of the episodes of the mentioned national legend: Moses, unlike Elijah, was taken to heaven at death and after that was resuscitated by God, quite as deaths will resuscitate the day of the Judgment. Satan is strongly opposed to this, such that the archangel Michael himself had to stand up for Moses. By the way we can notice that nothing is said about the angelic hierarchy in the biblical books, but it is described in detail in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. As we see, these Apocrypha are also in many the fruit of the Jewish religious national creativity of Hellenistic time. But Jude, as we see, feels in this respect completely free: in his message he refers to the folk legends as well as to the sacred books.

And it is not surprising: because it was important for the apostle to pass on to his readers this idea, which he considered important. And the illustrative material played in this case an auxiliary role. It was important only that it is well known to the addressees of the message and did not contradict the Holy Scripture. The legend about the discussion over the body of Moses answered these criteria. And the apostle uses it, of course, without making of such a use an end in itself. Indeed, any legend is only a source, from where we can draw for ourselves something important for the understanding of certain laws of the spiritual life.