Jude 1:9 is one of the strangest verses in the Bible: “When the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”
The story of Michael and Satan arguing over Moses’s body is not found in the Old Testament, but it is found in Jewish tradition. Evidently Jude felt confident that the Jewish tradition was accurate on this point and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, used it to illustrate his moral exhortation (that unlike the false teachers of Jude 1:4–8, we shouldn’t go around blaspheming others).
Several clues in the Old Testament help us to understand how this Jewish tradition may have developed, and why Jude may have considered it reliable.
God Buried Moses’s Body… Through Angels?
First, the Hebrew OT does say something about the corpse of Moses. In Deuteronomy 34:5, we read that God buried Moses’s body in a secret plate: “Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he [the Lord] buried him [Moses] in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.” God had forbidden Moses from entering the promised land because Moses had sinned and dishonored God in Israel’s eyes. But God still loved Moses and wanted to honor his faithful servant in death by burying his body.
Deuteronomy 34:5 could mean that God, by his almighty power, simply caused the body of Moses to be moved. However, the Bible commonly attributes actions to God that God carries out through or in concert with his angelic servants. For example, Galatians 3:19 says that the Law “was put in place through angels by an intermediary.” It seems likely, then, that God used angels to carry out the burial of Moses. Peter Chrysologus (an early fifth-century church father) preached, “The angels were present at the death of Moses, and God himself took care of his burial.”
Interestingly, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew that was used in the days of the apostles) changes “he buried Moses” to “they buried Moses”: “And Moses, a household slave of the Lord, died in the land of Moab, on account of the word of the Lord. And they buried him at Ai near the house of Peor. And no one knows his grave until this day.” Perhaps the LXX translator felt uncomfortable with the idea of God burying someone and changed it to “they,” by which he meant “the people of the land of Moab.” But given the familiar Hebrew tradition of God burying Moses, some Jews may have read “they” and assumed that it meant “God and his angels.” In his work on The Life of Moses, a leading Jewish philosopher of Jesus’s day, Philo wrote, “He [Moses] was entombed not by mortal hands, but by immortal powers, so that he was not placed in the tomb of his forefathers, having met with particular grace which no man ever saw.”
It seems reasonable to conclude that based on God’s action in Deuteronomy 34:5, the way that God commonly acts with or through angels, and the way that God’s action was viewed by the Jewish people, that God did indeed bury Moses’s body through one or more angels. But which angel or angels? How do we get to Michael?
Michael: Israel’s Patron Angel
The Old Testament does not give us the names of angels, with two notable exceptions: Gabriel and Michael, both featured prominently in the Book of Daniel. In Daniel 8:16, Gabriel is instructed to help Daniel understand his vision. Then, in Daniel 10, Daniel is comforted by an angelic messenger (probably still Gabriel), but the angel explains that he was delayed in coming to Daniel for three weeks because he was opposed by “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” (Dan. 10:13)—likely an “archdemon” of sorts who had great influence over Persia. Gabriel was finally able to come to Daniel because “Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me” (Dan. 10:13). Since “princes” means “powerful angels” in the context of Daniel 10, “chief princes” is a very similar expression to “archangel” (this is significant because Jude is the only biblical author to call Michael an “archangel”).
After sharing the vision with Daniel, Gabriel explains that he must return to the fight against the prince of Persia, who would eventually be succeeded by “the prince of Greece” (Dan. 10:20)—an evil angel charged with influencing the next great empire in history. Behind Israel’s earthly battles and the tides of human history, a great spiritual battle was taking place (Eph. 6:12). Gabriel doesn’t want Daniel to be discouraged by this, and offers a word of comfort in verse 21: “I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.” Michael is mentioned once more in Daniel 12:1 as “the great prince who has charge of your people,” and as the angel who will arise to right for God’s people in the time of the end. These verses single Michael out as Israel’s powerful “patron” angel—“your prince,” who has “charge of your people.”
The Book of Daniel singles Michael out as Israel’s powerful “patron” angel—“your prince,” who has “charge of your people.”
This helps us to understand why, according to Jewish tradition, God used Michael to bury Moses’s body. Moses was Israel’s most extraordinary leader (Deut. 34:10, “there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses”). He was their earthly “prince.” It seems reasonable that God would choose his most extraordinary angel, Israel’s angelic prince, to perform this great task.
Michael Opposed by the Devil
Since Michael is introduced as a warrior angel, locked in a perpetual conflict with evil angels, it also seems reasonable to conclude that Satan works to oppose whatever Michael does—especially when it has to do with someone as precious to God as Moses! In Revelation 12, it is “Michael and his angels” who fight against “the great red dragon”—“that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (Rev. 12:9). Michael, leader of angel armies, is a kind of counterpart to Satan, leader of demon armies. Unfortunately, we tend to think of Satan as an evil counterpart to God. Unlike dualistic religions, however, God is in a completely different class than all created beings, and Satan can’t do anything without God’s permission (Job 1:6–12). While the Lord of hosts is the “Commander in Chief,” the High Commander of angel armies, Satan isn’t worthy of being viewed as his counterpart.
Michael is introduced as a warrior angel, locked in a perpetual conflict with evil angels.
It seems likely that when God sent Michael to move the body of Moses, Satan followed him and tried to discourage Michael from carrying out God’s orders. There’s no reason to sensationalize this, as if Michael and the devil got into some kind of angelic sword fight over the corpse of Moses. The scene was likely similar to Satan’s temptation of Christ in the wilderness, where Christ and the devil had a kind of “Scripture quote-off.” When Jude says that Michael “was disputing about the body of Moses,” he indicates a verbal battle.” They had “an argument about Moses’s body” (CSB)—a “debate” (MOUNCE). We can only speculate about the nature of this debate, but it’s likely that Satan gave reasons why Moses didn’t deserve to be buried, and Michael refuted them.
Some early Christian writers claimed that Jude was drawing from a Jewish work called The Assumption of Moses. While Jude may have been drawing from The Assumption (or from another work, The Testament of Moses, which had The Assumption as its basis), we do not have any surviving manuscripts that describe a dispute between Michael and the devil. Based on commentary from church fathers who had read The Assumption, it seems that Satan was depicted in this work as slandering Moses. Satan told Michael that Moses was unworthy of burial because Moses was a murderer, guilty of the blood of the Egyptian that he had slain (Ex. 2:12). This would fit well with the context of Jude 1:9, where Jude is confronting false teachers who go around blaspheming and slandering others (Jude 1:8).
Whatever the case, Michael was not deterred by the devil, and would not put up with his false arguments. But instead of “going off” on the devil, Michael showed restraint and called upon the Lord, Satan’s ultimate judge: “Michael did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you’” (Jude 1:9). At that point, the devil likely left Michael, as he left Jesus in the wilderness after realizing that Jesus would never be convinced by the devil’s deceitful pleas (Matthew 4:11).
The Moral of the Story
While it might be more fun to talk about angels fighting over a corpse, the most important part of Jude 1:9 is found in Michael’s refusal to blaspheme. If Michael—the great prince and patron warrior angel of Israel—refused to blaspheme even the devil, how much more should we resist the temptation to blaspheme or slanderously condemn others?
Jude has strong words for those who “blaspheme the glorious ones” (1:8) and “blaspheme all that they do not understand” (1:10). Peter makes the same point, and alludes to the same story of Michael and the devil, when he condemns those who “do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord” (2 Pet. 2:10–11). May the Lord help us to guard our lips and to remember that God is the final judge of even our worst enemies.
