Pseudo-Philo’s Liber
Antiquitatum Biblicarum greatly expands upon the biblical account of the
extraordinary character of the death of Moses:
Deuteronomy 34:5-6
5 Then Moses, the servant
of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab at the Lord’s command.
6 He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor, but no
one knows his burial place to this day.
a. Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 19:12, 16
12 I will take you from
here and lay you down to sleep with your fathers, and I will give you rest in
your resting place and bury you in peace. All the angels will mourn over
you, and the heavenly hosts will grieve. But no angel nor man will know your
sepulcher in which you will be buried. You will rest in it until I visit
the world. I will raise up you and your fathers from the earth in which you
sleep and you will come together and dwell in the immortal dwelling place that
is not subject to time . . .
16 When Moses heard this,
he was filled with understanding and his appearance was changed to a state of
glory; and he died in glory in accord with the word of the Lord,
and he buried him as he had promised him. The angels mourned his death
and went before him all together with lightning bolts and torches and arrows.
On that day the hymn of the heavenly hosts was not sung because of the passing
of Moses, nor was there such a day from the time when the Lord made man upon
the earth, nor shall there again be such forever, that the hymn of the angels
should be humbled on account of men, because he loved him very much. He buried
him with his own hands in a high-place as a light for the entire world.
Whereas the biblical
account states succinctly that Moses “died” and God “buried him” (Deut 34:5-6),
in L.A.B. 19:12 God promises not only that God himself “will take” Moses
“from here” and euphemistically “lay you down to sleep,” but that God himself
will give him “rest” (requiem) and bury him “in peace” (cum pace).
God further promises Moses a future resurrection from death and entrance into
heaven, that is, “the immortal dwelling place that is not subject to time”
(19:12). This promise of a dwelling in heaven is promptly reinforced when God
promises further that “I will hasten to raise up you who are sleeping in order
that all who will be restored to life will dwell in the place of sanctification
that I showed you” (19:13).
Pseudo-Philo greatly
emphasizes the glorious circumstances and heavenly ramifications surrounding
the death of Moses. Whereas the biblical account simply states that Moses
“died” at the Lord’s command (Deut 34:5), in L.A.B 19:16, before Moses
died, his appearance was changed “to a state of glory” (in gloria), and
he died “in glory” (in gloria) in accord with the word of the Lord. As
God promised (19:12), God himself buried Moses and the angels mourned his death
and “went before him” in a kind of heavenly funeral procession (19:16). That no
hymn was sung in heaven on the day Moses died, because God “loved him very
much,” and that Od himself buried Moses “with his own hands” (19:16) further
underscore the uniqueness of the death of Moses.
Although Pseudo-Philo
asserted that Moses was buried (19:16) and would remain in his grave until the
future resurrection (19:12), there may be, nevertheless, especially in view of
Pseudo-Philo’s emphasis upon the glorious death of Moses, a suggestion that
Moses already entered heaven when he died:
b. Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 32:9
When he was dying, God
arranged the firmament for him and pointed out to him then what we now have as
witnesses, saying, “Let there be as a witness between me and you and my people
the heaven that you have entered and the earth on which you have walked until
now.”
Although that “God arranged
the firmament for him” may refer simply to God’s revealing the heavens to Moses
before he died (19:10), it could just as well refer to God’s arrangement of the
heavens for the entrance of Moses into them at his death. And although “the
heaven that you have entered” may allude to the past heavenly ascent of Moses
on Mount Sinai, it also could refer to the entrance of Moses into heaven now,
“when he was dying.” At any rate, for Pseudo-Philo Moses did not suffer the
ignominious death of a rejected prophet; on the contrary, he died “in glory”
and entered heaven at the time of his death and/or will enter it in the future
resurrection. (John Paul Heil, The Transfiguration of Jesus: Narrative
Meaning and Function of Mark 9:2-8, Matt 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36 [Analecta
Biblica 144; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 2000], 106-9)
