Last night we digressed ever so briefly into a discussion about Michael, Satan, and Moses’ body. This morning, I consulted my favorite commentator, and he had this to say on the passage in question:
“Michael,” whose name means “Who is like God?” is one of only two angels whose names the Bible reveals; the other is Gabriel. Michael appears in Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1 as the “prince” and guardian of the nation of Israel. In Revelation 12:7-9 we find him at the head of the heavenly host in a conflict with Satan and his angels, resulting in Satan’s expulsion from heaven. Daniel 10:13 describes Michael as “one of the chief princes.” Walvoord notes that according to Daniel 10 “Michael seems to be the most powerful of the holy angels. And Seiss, on the basis of Revelation 12:7-8, likens Michael to “a general-in-chief” who has his officers and soldiers “who nevertheless all belong to the king,” namely, Christ. Only here does the Bible specifically identify Michael as “the archangel” (ho archanggelos). The Scriptures do not apply the term to any other angel, nor do they speak of “archangels. The archangel whose trumpet will herald the descent of Christ to catch up His Church seems clearly to be Michael (1 Thess. 4:16). But there is no clear proof that Michael is to be identified with Christ Himself, as some insist.
Jude’s remark that Michael “when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses” is not based on any Old Testament statement. It is apparently based on an extension of the brief account of the burial of Moses in Deuteronomy 34:5-6. The occasion referred to is obscure but seems to have been familiar to Jude’s readers. The story involved apparently had great currency in oral tradition. According to the tradition, God committed the burial of Moses’ body to the angel Michael, but the Devil opposed Michael, disputing his right to bury the body because Moses had been a murderer (Exod. 2:12). The marginal reading of Deuteronomy 34:6, “he was buried” (ASV), leaves open the possibility of angelic agency in the burial of Moses. Another suggestion is that the Devil wanted possession of the body in order to entice Israel into idolatrous veneration of it (cf. the brazen serpent). The Targum of Jonathan on Deuteronomy 34:6 asserted “that the grave of Moses was given into the special custody of Michael. It has indeed been suggested that the dispute here mentioned occurred at the time of the translation of the body of Moses soon after his death (since he afterwards appeared with the translated Elijah at the transfiguration of Jesus) and that “Satan (Heb. ii. 14) contended with Michael, that it should not be raised again on the ground of Moses’s sin.” Jude’s remark leaves the occasion obscure.
There is also evidence that not only was the story about the dispute over Moses’ body in the oral tradition, but that it was from the apocryphal work, The Assumption of Moses (only parts of which are still in existence).
Hiebert also agrees with what we said last night, and quotes Lenski to the same effect:
“No matter whence or how an inspired writer obtained his information, the Holy Spirit enabled him to sift out and adequately to present only what is genuine, true. That is the real point here.”
Words of Grace 