Expert: Dean Gade - 2/26/2010

Question
Insight, interpretation or meaning on this event mention in Jude 9 and are there any more literature concerning it?

Answer
I'm afraid there is no real help in this matter. No theologian or commentary seems to have an answer to what really happened here.   

Below, I have copied what some commentators over the last few hundreds of years have written; maybe it will be of help, but as you can see, they really don't know either:



On this occasion the apostle brings in Michael the archangel, etc., v. 9. Interpreters are at a loss what is here meant by the body of Moses. Some think that the devil contended that Moses might have a public and honourable funeral, that the place where he was interred might be generally known, hoping thereby to draw the Jews, so naturally prone thereto, to a new and fresh instance of idolatry. Dr. Scott thinks that by the body of Moses we are to understand the Jewish church, whose destruction the devil strove and contended for, as the Christian church is called the body of Christ in the New-Testament style. Others bring other interpretations, which I will not here trouble the reader with. Though this contest was mightily eager and earnest, and Michael was victorious in the issue, yet he would not bring a railing accusation against the devil himself; he knew a good cause needed no such weapons to be employed in its defence.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Jude 9
Clement of Alexandria (Adumb. in Ep. Judae) says that Jude quoted here the Assumption of Moses, one of the apocryphal books. Origen says the same thing. Mayor thinks that the author of the Assumption of Moses took these words from Zechariah and put them in the mouth of the Archangel Michael.
(from Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Biblesoft, Inc. Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament. Copyright © 1985 by Broadman Press.)

Jude 9

Michael the archangel. Here we strike a peculiarity of this epistle which caused its authority to be impugned in very early times, namely, the apparent citations of apocryphal writings. The passages are Jude 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 3:1; but there is nothing there about Moses' body, or Michael, or a dispute about the body. Others, again, to a rabbinical comment on Deut 34:6, 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 34:6. For a similar reference to tradition compare 2 Tim 3:8; Acts 7:22.
(from Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Jude 9

[Yet Michael the archangel] Of this personage many things are spoken in the Jewish writings. "Rabbi Judah Haqqodesh says: Wherever Michael is said to appear, the glory of the divine Majesty is always to be understood." Shemoth Rabba, sec. 2., 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 12:7, it is said: Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon and his angels. The word Michael, Miyka'el, seems to be compounded of miy who, kª-, ke, like, and 'Eel, 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 Jude drew it, unless from some tradition among his countrymen. There is something very like it in Debarim Rabba, sec. 2, 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; Mic 7:8. 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, etc." 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."
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)