NEW EXPOSITORY MAGAZINE. THE MONTHLY INTERPRETER. Edited by the Rev. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A., Vicar of Dartmouth. Then said the Interpreter, Come in; I will show thee that which will be profitable to thee.'-JOHN BUNYAN. P Monthly Interpreter:- The Assumption of Moses. By Rev. W. J. Christ's Exaltation in the Epistle to the Some Recent Checks and Reverses sustained by Modern Unbelief. By Rev. ALEXANDER The Continuity of the Sermon on the Mount. GEORGE G. FINDLAY, B.A. By Rev. The First Chapter of Romans. By Rev. JAMES The Epistle to Philemon. By Very Rev. E. H. The Kingdom of God. By Rev. Prof. A. B. Omissions from the Fourth Gospel. By Rev. The Last Chapters of the Fourth Gospel. By The Anti-Christian Systems of the Nineteenth Ancient Heathenism compared with Chris- M.A The Patriarchial Times. By Rev. T. WHITE- The Groundwork of the Apocalypse. By Rev. Studies in the Minor Prophets. By Rev. A Monthly Summary of English and Foreign Biblical Topography in the Light of Modern Papers on the Revised Version of the Old The Miracles of Our Lord. By Rev. Prof. Ancient Syriac Versions. By Rev. P. J. GLOAG, The Brethren of Our Lord. By Rev. Pre- The Visions of Daniel. By Rev. C. H. H. The Three Witnesses. By Rev. A. PLUMMER, LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. The Venerable Archdeacon F. W. FARRAR, The Very Reverend Dr. PLUMPTRE. Rev. Prebendary GIBSON, M.A. Rev. PATON J. GLOAG, D.D. Rev. Prof. H. CALDERWOOD, LL.D. Rev. Principal G. C. M. DOUGLAS, D.D. Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN, LL.D. Rev. Prof. R. A. REDFORD, M.A., LL.B. Rev. Prof. T. M. LINDSAY, D.D. Rev. ALEXANDER MAIR, D.D. Other well-known Names will be shortly added. EDINBURGH: LONDON: EET. KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO. T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. THE ASSUMPTION OF MOSES. IN the Epistle of St. Jude we read (ver. 9): Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." Hereupon two questions arise. Whence did the apostle derive the story to which he refers? And what was the occasion of the dispute? To the latter question a conjectural answer alone can be given. Taking into consideration the circumstances of the burial of Moses, we see that it was intended to be a secret transaction. The Lord, we are told (Deut. xxxiv. 6), "buried him in a valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Doubtless there was a good reason for this secrecy. The proneness of the Jews to idolatry, the likelihood that the body of their great leader might become an object of worship, even as the brazen serpent drew their hearts away in later time, the tendency to follow the creature-worship and to pay that undue reverence to relics which they had seen in Egypt,these considerations may have led to the concealment of the body of Moses. And the devil wished to frustrate this. purpose. He saw an opportunity of using the mortal remains of Moses to draw away the Israelites from true religion. He would have no mystery about the burial. The people should be shown their leader's resting-place; of the result he had no doubt whatever. And Michael, the appointed guard of the grave, as the Targum says, resisted this evil attempt of Satan, and firmly carried out the purpose of God. Using the words An attempt has been made to read 'In instead of Mauriws, and to refer the occurrence to Zech. iii. 2; but there is no authority whatever for such change of the text. which God Himself had employed when the wicked spirit endeavoured to withstand His act of clothing Joshua, the high priest, in festal garments (Zech. iii.), Michael answered, "The Lord rebuke thee." And in the unknown spot the body rested; or, at any rate, it was seen no more till it appeared to the wondering three on the Mount of Transfiguration fourteen hundred years later. The former question, as to the origin of the narrative to which St. Jude refers, is answered by Origen,' who intimates that it is derived from a book which he calls "The Ascension of Moses," 'Aváλmpis Mwσews. That St. Jude should refer Ανάληψις Μώσεως. to a work current in his day, though not appertaining to the canon of Holy Scripture, is quite supposable, as there is good ground for believing that in another place (ver. 14) he cites the apocryphal Book of Enoch. The existence of this Assumption or Ascension of Moses is testified by many other early writers. In the remarkable use of the word μeoirns in the Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 19) some have seen a reference to, or evidence of acquaintance with, our book. Certainly the term is applied to Moses in the first chapter, where the dying lawgiver says: "Itaque excogitavit et invenit me, qui ab initio orbis terrarum præparatur sum ut sim arbiter testamenti illius." Referring to this, and having the Greek original before him, Gelasius of Cyzicum gives the latter words of 1 De Princ. iii. 2. 1: "In Genesi serpens Evam seduxisse describitur, de quo in Adscensione Mosis, cujus libelli meminit in Epistola sua Apostolus Judas, 'Michael archangelus cum Diabolo disputans de corpore Mosis,' ait a Diabolo impiratum serpentem causam exstitisse prævaricationis Adæ et Evæ." Opp. i. 138. The title of the work is given as Assumtio Moysis, sometimes as Ascensio or Receptio M., both being translations of the Greek áváλnýis M., and this not in the sense of ascension of body and soul, as in the case of Christ, but with the meaning that while his body was buried his soul was conveyed by angels to heaven. Moses himself in one passage (Assumt. x. 14) speaks of sleeping with his fathers, and in another dates an event from his reception ("a receptione mea,' x. 12). More indefinitely it is termed "Secreta M." (Didym.), and ßißλía àæónpuça M. (Const. Apost.). 2 Comment. Act. Syn. Nic. ii. 18. (Mansi, Concil. ii. p. 844.) The passage in Heb. ix. 15 is translated in Cod. Claromont.: "et ideo novi testamenti arbiter est," where the Vulgate has "mediator." Moses as είναι με τῆς διαθήκης αὐτοῦ μεσίτην. But we cannot lay much stress on the use of this expression, as it is 1 "2 employed in this connection by Philo and the Rabbinical authors, and was probably applied to Moses by writers antecedent to Christianity in agreement with Deut. v. 5, where he says: "I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the Lord." It is also asserted that Clemens Romanus quotes our book when, speaking of Moses (xvii. 5), he says: "He, though greatly honoured, magnified not himself, but answered when the revelation was made to him at the bush, Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.' And again he saith: I am as smoke from the pottery.' The last clause is deemed by Hilgenfeld to be cited from the Assumption. This is possible, but the existing fragments do not contain it. The earliest reference which can be relied on is found in the works of Clemens Alexandrinus, who, describing the death of Moses, says it is probable that Joshua saw Moses in twofold form when he was taken up (avaλaμßavóμevov), one with the angels, and one honoured with burial in the valley. This curious opinion is shared by Origen, who asserts that in a certain uncanonical book mention is made of two Moses' being seen, one alive in the spirit, the other dead in the body. Evodius, a contemporary of St. Augustine, has the same gloss, derived from the same source: "When he ascended the mountain to die, the power of his body brought it to pass, that there should be one body to commit to earth, and another 1 Vit. Mos. iii. 19: οἷα μεσίτης καὶ διαλλακτής. Vol. ii. p. 160 Μ. * 'Eyà dé siμs àrμìs àñò xúlpas. Lightfoot's references to Jas. iv. 14 and Hos. xiii. 3 are not satisfactory. 3 Strom. vi. 15 (p. 806, Potter). 4 In Libr. Jesu Nave, Hom. ii. 1: "Denique et in libello quodam, licet in canone non habeatur, mysterii tamen hujus figura describitur. Refertur enim quia duo Moses videbantur, unus vivus in spiritu, alius mortuus in corpore." 5 Augustin. Ep. 158 (ii. p. 426, Ben.): "Quamquam et in apocryphis et in secretis ipsius Moysi, quæ scriptura caret auctoritate, tunc cum ascenderet in montem ut moreretur, vi corporis efficitur ut aliud esset quod terræ mandaretur, aliud quod angelo comitanti sociaretur." |