Did the devil stake a claim to the dead body of Moses?

Question

We read in the Epistle of Jude, Verse 9:

But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”.

Footnote: Under the verse says that Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses. Deut 34: 5-6 that narrates the death of Moses mentions that no one knows where he was buried.

My question is: Did the devil stake a claim to the dead body of Moses, on account of which he was buried in an undisclosed place? Is there any Christian tradition on the subject?

Answer 1

There appears to be nothing in the Bible that gives a real clue as to what the dispute between Michael and the devil could have been about, further to Jude verse 9. They had a dispute about Moses' body, which ended with Michael calling on God to rebuke the devil. We do not know any details about the actual dispute.

All we may safely claim is that the devil was saying nasty, untrue things about the meekest of men - Moses. He was speaking ill of the dead. The previous verse in Jude refers to wicked men who "defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities [Lit. 'glories']." Then the devil is mentioned, perhaps as the worst example of such wickedness. The Bible commentary below ventures to suggest this:

"This dispute must have taken place after the death of Moses and his burial by Jehovah, for "death reigned from Adam to (until) Moses" (Rom. 5:14). The devil claimed Moses for the death-state, but God raised him as representative of those hereafter to be raised, as Elijah of those to be caught up without dying." The Companion Bible Bullinger, page 1882, side-column re. verse 9

There is, however, a Jewish tradition, "Assumption of Moses" (or, The Testament of Moses), a 1st century apocryphal work known only through a single 6th century Latin text in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. It claims to have secret prophecies given to Joshua by Moses before he died, but very little of that document exists. See: What is the Assumption of Moses? (Got Questions)

Answer 2

Did the devil stake a claim to the dead body of Moses?

The short answer is ”yes”.

Here is what Got Questions has to say on this subject:

Jude verse 9 refers to an event which is found nowhere else in Scripture. Michael had to struggle or dispute with Satan about the body of Moses, but what that entailed is not described. Another angelic struggle is related by Daniel, who describes an angel coming to him in a vision. This angel, named Gabriel in Daniel 8:16 and 9:21, tells Daniel that he was “resisted” by a demon called “the prince of Persia” until the archangel Michael came to his assistance (Daniel 10:13). So we learn from Daniel that angels and demons fight spiritual battles over the souls of men and nations, and that the demons resist angels and try to prevent them from doing God’s bidding. Jude tells us that Michael was sent by God to deal in some way with the body of Moses, which God Himself had buried after Moses’ death (Deuteronomy 34:5-6).

Various theories have been put forth as to what this struggle over Moses’ body was about. One is that Satan, ever the accuser of God’s people (Revelation 12:10), may have resisted the raising of Moses to eternal life on the grounds of Moses’ sin at Meribah (Deuteronomy 32:51) and his murder of the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12).

It has also been supposed that Jude is quoting an apocryphal book that contained this account, and that Jude means to confirm that the account is true. Origen (c. 185–254), an early Christian scholar and theologian, mentions the book “The Assumption of Moses” as extant in his time, containing this very account of the contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. That book, now lost, was a Jewish Greek book, and Origen supposed that this was the source of the account in Jude.

The only material question, then, is whether the story is “true.” Whatever the origin of the account, Jude does in fact seem to refer to the contest between Michael and the devil as true. He speaks of it in the same way in which he would have done if he had spoken of the death of Moses or of his smiting the rock. And who can prove that it is not true? What evidence is there that it is not? There are many allusions in the Bible to angels. We know that the archangel Michael is real; there is frequent mention of the devil; and there are numerous affirmations that both bad and good angels are employed in important transactions on the earth. As the nature of this particular dispute over Moses’ body is wholly unknown, conjecture is useless. We do not know whether there was an argument over possession of the body, burial of the body, or anything else. - Why were Michael and Satan disputing over the body of Moses (Jude 9)?