Assumption of Moses

Biblical References

The Assumption of Moses is a Jewish writing not included in the sixty-six books of the Bible. The biblical passage connected with it is Jude 1:9. According to this verse, when the archangel Michael contended with the devil over the body of Moses, he "durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." The Old Testament contains no account of this dispute. Deuteronomy 34:5-6 records only that Moses died in the land of Moab and was buried there, and that no one knows the place of his burial. Origen and other early church fathers explained that this passage in Jude was drawn from the Assumption of Moses.

Contents and Background

The text survives today in only a single Latin manuscript, which was discovered in the Ambrosian Library in Milan and first published in 1861. Its latter portion is missing, so the scene of the dispute between Michael and the devil reported in Jude has not survived.

The extant portion is a farewell address in which Moses, facing death, foretells Israel's future to Joshua. The address predicts in sequence the settlement in Canaan, the exile, the apostasy following the return, and persecution by a foreign king. It goes on to describe the era of a king who reigned thirty-four years and of his sons; this king is commonly identified as Herod the Great. The work also tells of a Levite named Taxo who, together with his seven sons, chooses death rather than transgress the Law. Another passage celebrates the day when God's kingdom will appear and the devil will come to an end.

On the basis of this content, many scholars date the work to the early first century AD. Some hold that a writing from the Maccabean era was revised at that time. In content, the surviving text more closely resembles a "Testament of Moses." Opinion is therefore divided over whether the Testament of Moses and the Assumption of Moses, which are listed separately in ancient catalogs, were originally two books or two parts of a single work. Writings of this kind, composed under the name of an ancient figure, are called pseudepigrapha (noncanonical writings issued under a borrowed name).

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

Jude uses this tradition to draw a contrast with false teachers who despise authority: even the archangel did not condemn the devil on his own authority but left judgment to God. Jude 1:14-15 likewise quotes words known as the prophecy of Enoch. These passages are often cited as examples showing that the New Testament writers were familiar with Jewish traditions of the intertestamental period and with apocalyptic literature.

Interpretation and Issues

• Canonical status: Protestantism, the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Church all exclude this book from the canon. Jerome reports that some rejected the Epistle of Jude because it quotes extrabiblical literature.
• Significance of the quotation: Conservative Protestants hold that an inspired author could select true material from extrabiblical sources. Even so, they explain, this does not constitute an endorsement of the entire book quoted. Another view holds that Jude drew not on a book but on an oral tradition widely circulated at the time, using it as an illustration.
• Did Moses ascend to heaven?: Because of the book's title, stories sometimes circulate claiming that Moses was taken bodily into heaven. Scripture, however, records that Moses died and was buried. Citing Moses' appearance alongside Elijah at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3) as evidence for this is an inference the text does not directly support. The book is also unrelated to the Ascension of Jesus.

In the Korean Church

Korean Protestants classify this book among the "pseudepigrapha." In the Catholic Church, books corresponding to the Protestant pseudepigrapha are often called "apocrypha." Because the books Protestants call the Apocrypha are termed "deuterocanonical books" in the Catholic Church, the terminology of the two churches does not align. In preaching, the book is mainly introduced as background when expounding Jude 1:9.