The Assumption of Moses is a 1st centuryJewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical work. It purports to contain secret prophecies Moses revealed to Joshua before passing leadership of the Israelites to him. It contains apocalyptic themes, but is characterized as a "testament", meaning it has the final speech of a dying person, Moses.
The two titles of this manuscript are due to different identifications with lost texts. The Stichometry of Nicephorus and some other ancient lists refer to both a Testament of Moses and an Assumption of Moses, apparently as separate texts.
Ceriani, and later Tromp with him, identified the manuscript with the Assumption of Moses due to a match of verse 1:14 with a quotation included in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Gelasius of Cyzicus. This apocryphal work, entitled פטירת משה in Hebrew, and ᾽Ανάληψις or ᾽Ανάβασις Μωυσέως in Greek, is also mentioned by other ancient writers, including Athanasius and Origen;
Charles, in his edition of 1897 suggests that the manuscript shall be identified with the Testament of Moses because the extant text does not describe any assumption of Moses to heaven, but simply contains the last exhortations of Moses. Charles furthermore suggests that these two separate texts were later united to form a single work.
Some ancient writers, including Gelasius and Origen, cite the Assumption of Moses with reference to the dispute over the body of Moses, referred to in the Epistle of Jude, between the archangel Michael and the devil. This dispute does not appear in Ceriani's manuscript; this could lend support to the identification of the manuscript with the Testament of Moses, but could also be explained by the text's incompleteness. An alternative explanation is that Jude is compounding material from three sources:
general Jewish traditions about Michael as gravedigger for the just as in the Apocalypse of Moses
This explanation has in its favour three arguments: Jude quotes from both 1 Enoch 1:9 and Zechariah 3. Jeshua in Zechariah 3 is dead - his grandson is serving as high priest. The change from "body of Jesus" to "body of Moses" would be required to avoid confusion with Jesus, and also to reflect the historical context of Zech. 3 in Nehemiah concerning intermarriage and corruption in the "body" of the priesthood. The example of Zech. 3 provides an argument against the "slandering of heavenly beings", since the Angel of the Lord does not do in Zech. 3 what Michael is reported to do in 1En1.
Content
The text is in twelve chapters:
In Chapter 1 Moses, before dying, chooses Joshua as successor and leaves him the books he shall preserve to the end of days, when the Lord will visit his people. The role of Moses as mediator is highlighted.
Chapters 2–5 contain a brief outline of Jewish history up to Hellenization under Antiochus IV. This is narrated in the form of foretelling.
Chapter 7 is about the end of days, but the manuscript is too fragmented to fully understand the text.
Chapter 8 narrates a great persecution of Jews at the hands of hypocrites. Some scholars read this as an eschatological prophecy, while others, like Charles, interpret this as events that happened before the Maccabee rebellion. Charles also suggests that chapters 8 and 9 were originally located between chapters 5 and 6.
In Chapter 9the narrative follows with a description of a Levite man named Taxo and his seven sons, who, rather than give in to hellenizing influences, seal themselves into a cave.
Chapter 10 contains an eschatological hymn: At the end of the times God will arise, punish the Gentiles, and exalt Israel. Before the coming of God a messenger with sacerdotal tasks is prophesied, who will avenge Israel.
Chapters 11 and 12 conclude the text with Moses exhorting Joshua not to fear, as history fully provides for God's covenant and plan.
Due to the vaticinia ex eventu, most scholars date the work to the early 1st century AD, contemporary with the latest historical figures it describes. Some others, however, date it to the previous century and suggest that the 1st-century references in Chapters 6 and 10 were later insertions. Based on the literal translation of idioms within the text, it is generally accepted that the extant Latin version is a translation from Koine Greek, with the Greek itself probably a translation from Hebrew or at least a text with considerable Semitic influence. There are no theological peculiarities to help us attribute the text to any specific Jewish group.
The main theme is the apocalyptic determinism of a history that unfolds according only to God's plan, regardless of the acts of either the Israelites or the Gentiles. Another theme is the figure of Moses, who is shown as a mediator and intercessor between God and humanity.
The dispute mentioned between the Archangel Michael and the Devil does not suit itself to the doctrinal views of the Sadducees since they denied the existence of angels. Pharisees or some other Jewish group may have had ties to this document.
finds the most striking feature in this work to be the writer's scathing condemnation of the priesthood before, during, and after the Maccabean period and an unsparing deprecation of the Temple services.
