Assumption...?
February 24, 2023
“Assumption…?”
Blessings folk!
Jude tells us this.
It is the Truth.
The Lord brought it forth in His Word.
Jude 1:9
But when the archangel Michael
contending with the devil,
was disputing about the body of Moses,
he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said,
“The Lord rebuke you.”
ESV
There is not an account of this encounter in the Old Testament.
How did Jude know?
Did the Lord give revelation?
He could have.
Did Jude “make it up to prove a point?”
No.
It is from the Assumption of Moses.
Huh?
(You can find all sorts of debate about the “Assumption/Testament of Moses” on the interlinks. Begin with the source of all wisdom and knowledge…tongue planted firmly in cheek…Wikipedia… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Moses )
Here is the bottom-line.
The biblical writers read.
They read…perhaps a lot.
The New Testament writers were very aware of the writings of the day.
God used insights from some of those writings.
This verse is a case in point.
We know of this struggle because of a Second Temple era Jewish writing.
God used it.
We do the same today.
We might quote Kendall, Wright, Heiser, Bob Dylan (yes Paul quoted Greek poets/philosophers), etc.
We use a truth/point of which people are familiar.
It does not mean that the writing rises to the level of biblical canon.
It does not mean that everything else in the writing is “correct”.
It does mean that the point God uses is true.
There are many such instances in the Word, many “other writings”.
Now, the question I have…”why were they fighting over a dead man’s bones…?”