Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Jude

[Princess Diana]

Jude 9. "And Satan disputed over the body of Moses..." Why was the body of Moses so important to Satan? Of course I'm aware that Satan is after every Christian who loves the Lord, but Moses was dead and Satan still desired to take it. Why?

[jimwalton]

Obviously this event is not recorded for us in the OT. So we're left to wonder about Jude's source, and what it has to do with false teachers (Jude's point). The context is apostasy (vv. 5-8). Now, in a previous discussion and thread, we discussed Moses's rebellion against God by striking the rock, and that Moses became, in a sense, an archetype of the disobedient generation that was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. It is also a well-established fact that Moses was a murderer. We also know that Satan was (is) an accuser, and if the rest of the disobedient generation entered God's rest (Heb. 4.5-6), we can possibly see why the destiny of Moses was a point of contention.

Bauckham says, "The moral is therefore that no one is a law to himself, an autonomous moral authority."

Two disclaimers: As A.T. Robertson says, "Some refer this to Zech 3.1 (though there is no mention there of Moses or Michael), others to a rabbinical comment on Dt. 34.6 (in the Targum of Jonathan, where Michael is said to have been made guardian of Moses’ grave). But this explanation hardly meets the facts."