SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:9
Pues cuando el Arcngel Miguel contendía con el diablo, disputando sobre el cuerpo de Moiss, no se atrevi a usar de juicio de maldicin contra l, antes le dijo: El Seor te reprenda.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Jude 1:9
Verse 9. Yet Michael the archangel] Of this personage many things are spoken in the Jewish writings "Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh says: Wherever Michael is said to appear, the glory of the Divine Majesty is always to be understood." Shemoth Rabba, sec. ii., fol. 104, 3. So that it seems as if they considered Michael in some sort as we do the Messiah manifested in the flesh. Let it be observed that the word archangel is never found in the plural number in the sacred writings. There can be properly only one archangel, one chief or head of all the angelic host. Nor is the word devil, as applied to the great enemy of mankind, ever found in the plural; there can be but one monarch of all fallen spirits. Michael is this archangel, and head of all the angelic orders; the devil, great dragon, or Satan, is head of all the diabolic orders. When these two hosts are opposed to each other they are said to act under these two chiefs, as leaders; hence in Rev. xii. 7, it is said: MICHAEL and his angels fought against the DRAGON and his angels.
The word Michael lakym , seems to be compounded of ym mi, who, k ke, like, and la El, God; he who is like God; hence by this personage, in the Apocalypse, many understand the Lord Jesus.
Disputed about the body of Moses] What this means I cannot tell; or from what source St. Jude drew it, unless from some tradition among his countrymen. There is something very like it in Debarim Rabba, sec. ii., fol.
263, 1: "Samael, that wicked one, the prince of the satans, carefully kept the soul of Moses, saying: When the time comes in which Michael shall lament, I shall have my mouth filled with laughter. Michael said to him: Wretch, I weep, and thou laughest. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall rise again: when I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light; Micah vii. 8. By the words, because I have fallen, we must understand the death of Moses; by the words, I shall rise again, the government of Joshua, &c." See the preface.
Another contention of Michael with Satan is mentioned in Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 43, 3: "At the time in which Isaac was bound there was a contention between Michael and Satan. Michael brought a ram, that Isaac might be liberated; but Satan endeavoured to carry off the ram, that Isaac might be slain." The contention mentioned by Jude is not about the sacrifice of Isaac, nor the soul of Moses, but about the BODY of Moses; but why or wherefore we know not. Some think the devil wished to show the Israelites where Moses was buried, knowing that they would then adore his body; and that Michael was sent to resist this discovery.
Durst not bring against him a railing accusation] It was a Jewish maxim, as may be seen in Synopsis Sohar, page 92, note 6: "It is not lawful for man to prefer ignominious reproaches, even against wicked spirits." See Schoettgen.
Dr. Macknight says: "In Dan. x. 13, 21; xii. 1, Michael is spoken of as one of the chief angels who took care of the Israelites as a nation; he may therefore have been the angel of the Lord before whom Joshua the high priest is said, Zech. iii. 1, to have stood, Satan being at his right hand to resist him, namely, in his design of restoring the Jewish Church and state, called by Jude the body of Moses, just as the Christian Church is called by Paul the body of Christ. Zechariah adds, And the Lord, that is, the angel of the Lord, as is plain from Zech. iii. 1, 2, said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee!" This is the most likely interpretation which I have seen; and it will appear the more probable when it is considered that, among the Hebrews, Pwg guph, BODY, is often used for a thing itself. So, in Rom. vii. 24, swma thv amartiav, the body of sin, signifies sin itself; so the body of Moses, hm l Pwg guph shel Mosheh, may signify Moses himself; or that in which he was particularly concerned, viz., his institutes, religion, &c.
It may be added, that the Jews consider Michael and Samael, one as the friend, the other as the enemy, of Israel. Samael is their accuser, Michael their advocate. "Michael and Samael stand before the Lord; Satan accuses, but Michael shows the merits of Israel. Satan endeavours to speak, but Michael silences him: Hold thy tongue, says he, and let us hear what the Judge determines; for it is written, He will speak peace to his people, and to his saints; Psa. lxxxv. 8." Shemoth Rabba, sec. xviii. fol. 117, 3.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 9. Yet Michael the archangel , etc.] By whom is meant, not a created angel, but an eternal one, the Lord Jesus Christ; as appears from his name Michael, which signifies, who is as God: and who is as God, or like unto him, but the Son of God, who is equal with God? and from his character as the archangel, or Prince of angels, for Christ is the head of all principality and power; and from what is elsewhere said of Michael, as that he is the great Prince, and on the side of the people of God, and to have angels under him, and at his command, ( Daniel 10:21 <271201> 12:1 Revelation 12:7). So Philo the Jew calls the most ancient Word, firstborn of God, the archangel; Uriel is called the archangel in this passage from the Apocrypha: And unto these things Uriel the archangel gave them answer, and said, Even when the number of seeds is filled in you: for he hath weighed the world in the balance. (2 Esdras 4:36) when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses ; which some understand literally of the fleshly and natural body of Moses, buried by the Lord himself, partly out of respect to him; and partly, as some think, lest the Israelites should be tempted to an idolatrous worship of him; but rather it was to show that the law of Moses was to be abolished and buried by Christ, never to rise more: and they think that this dispute was either about the burying of his body, or the taking of it up again; Satan on the one hand insisting upon the taking of it up, in order to induce the Israelites to worship him, and Michael, on the other hand, opposing it, to prevent this idolatry; but then the difficulty is, where Jude should have this account, since the Scriptures are silent about it. Some have thought that he took it out of an apocryphal book, called the Ascension of Moses, as Origen f14 , which is not likely; others, that he had it by tradition, by which means the Apostle Paul came by the names of the Egyptian magicians Jannes and Jambres; and some passages are referred to in some of their writings f15 , as having some traces of this dispute; but in them the discourse is not concerning the body, but the soul of Moses; not concerning burying or taking up of his body, when buried, but concerning the taking away of his soul, when he was alive; which none of the angels caring to undertake, at length Samael, the chief of devils, did, but without success, wherefore God took it away with a kiss himself: besides, the apostle produces this history as a thing well known; nor is it reasonable to suppose that such an altercation should be between Michael, and the devil, on such an account; or that it was in order to draw Israel into idolatry on the one hand, and on the other hand to prevent it; since never was the custom of the Israelites to worship their progenitors or heroes; nor did they seem so well disposed to Moses in his lifetime; nor was there any necessity of taking up his body, were they inclined to give him honour and worship; yea, the sight of his dead body would rather have prevented than have encouraged it: but this is to be understood figuratively; and reference is had to the history in ( Zechariah 3:1,2); as appears from the latter part of this verse: some think the priesthood of Christ is intended, which was the end, the sum and substance, of the law of Moses; and seeing that Joshua, the high priest, was a type of Christ, and the angel of the Lord contended with Satan about him, he might be said to dispute with him about the body of Moses; but this sense makes a type of a type, and Christ to contend about himself; besides, this should rather be called the body of Christ than of Moses, others think that the temple of the Jews is meant about the rebuilding of which the contention is thought to be; and which may be called the body of Moses, as the church is called the body of Christ; though it should be observed, that the temple is never so called, and that not the place where the church meets, but the church itself, is called the body of Christ: but it is best of all to understand it of the law of Moses, which is sometimes called Moses himself, ( John 5:45 Acts 15:21 21:21 2 Corinthians 3:15); and so the body of Moses, or the body of his laws, the system of them; just as we call a system of laws, and of divinity, such an one's body of laws, and such an one's body of divinity: and this agrees with the language of the Jews, who say f16 , of statutes, service, purification, etc. that they are hrwth ypwg , the bodies of the law; and so of Misnic treatises, as those which concern the offerings of turtle doves, and the purification of menstruous women, that they are ypwg , the bodies of the traditions f17 , that is, the sum and substance of them: so the decalogue is said to be the body of the Shema, or Hear, O Israel, ( Deuteronomy 6:4), so Clemens of Alexandria says, that there are some who consider the body of the Scriptures, the words and names, as if they were, to swma tou mwsewv , the body of Moses f20 . Now the law of Moses was restored in the time of Joshua the high priest, by Ezra and Nehemiah. Joshua breaks some of these laws, and is charged by Satan as guilty, who contended and insisted upon it that he should suffer for it; so that this dispute or contention might be said to be about the body of Moses, that is, the body of Moses's law, which Joshua had broken; in which dispute Michael, or the angel of the Lord, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, durst not bring against him a railing accusation ; that is, not that he was afraid of the devil, but though he could have given harder words, or severer language, and which the other deserved, yet he chose not to do it, he would not do it; in which sense the word durst, or dare, is used in ( Romans 5:7); but said, the Lord rebuke thee ; for thy malice and insolence; (see Zechariah 3:2); and this mild and gentle way of using even the devil himself agrees with Christ's conduct towards him, when tempted by him in the wilderness, and when in his agony with him in the garden, and amidst all his reproaches and sufferings on the cross. And now the argument is from the greater to the lesser, that if Christ, the Prince of angels, did not choose to give a railing word to the devil, who is so much inferior to him, and when there was so much reason and occasion for it; then how great is the insolence of these men, that speak evil of civil and ecclesiastical rulers, without any just cause at all?
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-16 - False teachers are dreamers; they greatly defile and grievously woun the soul. These teachers are of a disturbed mind and a seditiou spirit; forgetting that the powers that be, are ordained of God, R 13:1. As to the contest about the body of Moses, it appears that Sata wished to make the place of his burial known to the Israelites, i order to tempt them to worship him, but he was prevented, and vente his rage in desperate blasphemy. This should remind all who disput never to bring railing charges. Also learn hence, that we ought to defend those whom God owns. It is hard, if not impossible, to find an enemies to the Christian religion, who did not, and do not, live in open or secret contradiction to the principles of natural religion Such are here compared to brute beasts, though they often boast of themselves as the wisest of mankind. They corrupt themselves in the things most open and plain. The fault lies, not in their understandings, but in their depraved wills, and their disordere appetites and affections. It is a great reproach, though unjust to religion, when those who profess it are opposed to it in heart an life. The Lord will remedy this in his time and way; not in men's blin way of plucking up the wheat with the tares. It is sad when men begi in the Spirit, and end in the flesh. Twice dead; they had been onc dead in their natural, fallen state; but now they are dead again by the evident proofs of their hypocrisy. Dead trees, why cumber they the ground! Away with them to the fire. Raging waves are a terror to sailing passengers; but when they get into port, the noise and terro are ended. False teachers are to expect the worst punishments in thi world and in that to come. They glare like meteors, or falling stars and then sink into the blackness of darkness for ever. We have n mention of the prophecy of Enoch in any other part or place of Scripture; yet one plain text of Scripture, proves any point we are to believe. We find from this, that Christ's coming to judge wa prophesied of, as early as the times before the flood. The Lord cometh what a glorious time will that be! Notice how often the word "ungodly is repeated. Many now do not at all refer to the terms godly, or ungodly, unless it be to mock at even the words; but it is not so in the language taught us by the Holy Ghost. Hard speeches of one another especially if ill-grounded, will certainly come into account at the da of judgment. These evil men and seducers are angry at every thing tha happens, and never pleased with their own state and condition. Their will and their fancy, are their only rule and law. Those who pleas their sinful appetites, are most prone to yield to ungovernabl passions. The men of God, from the beginning of the world, have declared the doom denounced on them. Such let us avoid. We are to follow men only as they follow Christ. (Jud 1:17-23)
Greek Textus Receptus
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Vincent's NT Word Studies
9. Michael the archangel. Here we strike a peculiarity of this epistle which caused its authority to be impugned in very early times, viz., the apparent citations of apocryphal writings. The passages are vv. 9,14, 15. This reference to Michael was said by Origen to be founded on a Jewish work called "The Assumption of Moses," the first part of which was lately found in an old Latin translation at Milan; and this is the view of Davidson, so far at least as the words "the Lord rebuke thee" are concerned. Others refer it to Zech. iii. 1; but there is nothing there about Moses' body, or Michael, or a dispute about the body. Others, again, to a rabbinical comment on Deut. xxxiv. 6, where Michael is said to have been made guardian of Moses' grave. Doubtless Jude was referring to some accepted story or tradition, probably based on Deut. xxxiv. 6. For a similar reference to tradition compare 2 Tim. iii. 8; Acts vii. 22. Michael. Angels are described in scripture as forming a society with different orders and dignities. This conception is developed in the books written during and after the exile, especially Daniel and Zechariah. Michael (Who is like God?) is one of the seven archangels, and was regarded as the special protector of the Hebrew nation. He is mentioned three times in the Old Testament (Dan. x. 13, 21; xii. 1), and twice in the New Testament (Jude 9; Apoc. xii. 7). He is adored as a saint in the Romish Church. For legends, see Mrs. Jameson, "Sacred and Legendary Art," i., 94 sq.
A railing accusation (krisin blasfhmiav). Lit., a judgment of railing; a sentence savoring of impugning his dignity. Michael remembered the high estate from which he fell, and left his sentence to God.
