“Disputed over the body of Moses”
But even the archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!' (Jude 1:9 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A puzzling reference to a Bible story that isn't there.
The cultural key
A reader who searches the Old Testament for this scene comes up empty, and that is the puzzle. Jude is drawing on a well-known piece of Second-Temple Jewish tradition, linked to a lost work called the Assumption (or Testament) of Moses, in which the archangel Michael and the devil contend over Moses' body after his death, the devil claiming it, perhaps because Moses had killed the Egyptian, and Michael securing it for burial. Jude's audience knew the story, so he uses it as a ready illustration, not as new revelation. His point turns on restraint: even Michael, the mightiest of angels, did not dare to pronounce his own condemning verdict on the devil but deferred to God, 'The Lord rebuke you' (echoing Zechariah 3:2). If the greatest angel showed such restraint before evil powers, how arrogant are the false teachers who casually 'slander glorious beings' (1:8). Knowing the source turns a baffling reference into a pointed lesson in humility.
Recovered meaning
Jude alludes to a Jewish tradition (from the lost Assumption of Moses) of Michael and the devil contending over Moses' body. The point is Michael's restraint: even he deferred to God rather than slander the devil, unlike the arrogant false teachers who slander spiritual powers.