Despite what appears to be a rather straightforward
report of Moses’ death and interment, many Jewish interpreters imagined that
something much more spectacular must have taken place on Mount Nebo. According
to some accounts, for instance, just before his death Moses is shown the course
of history (Sifre Deut. 357.1-7) or various mythological sites in the
heavens and on the earth, including paradise (LAB 19.10).
Interpreters were especially intrigued by the mysterious
location of Moses’ remains. A number of medieval rabbinic and targumic texts
report that God or the angels were personally involved in Moses’ death and
burial (e.g., Tg. Yer. Deut. 34.6). The most fantastic of claims with
regard to Moses’ whereabouts was that upon his death he was taken up to heaven
or that he never actually died, but ascended to heaven in the fashion of Elijah
or Enoch. The clearest evidence for the belief that Moses never died is found
in rabbinic and early Christian texts. Sifre Deuteronomy comments, ‘And
some say, “Moses did not really die, but he is alive and serving God above”’
(357.10).
There is evidence for this belief as early as the first
century ce. According to Josephus, the following events transpired on Nebo:
while [Moses] bade farewell to Eleazar and Joshua and was
yet communing with them, a cloud of a sudden descended upon him and he
disappeared in a ravine (Ant. 4.326).
The implication of this account is that Moses is taken
alive to God, not that he died. The event of Moses’ disappearance from a
mountain top after being surrounded by a cloud also occurs in the synoptic
transfiguration accounts (Mt. 16.29-17.8; Mk 9.1-8; Lk. 9.27-36). These
accounts supply further evidence of the belief that Moses had not come to his
end on Nebo. In these stories, Moses appears alive and well along with Elijah
on the mount of transfiguration. In addition to the fact that Moses is clearly
alive on the mountain, Moses’ company (Jesus and Elijah) suggests that the
gospel authors considered him to be among those who had ascended to God’s
presence. It is not clear, however, whether the gospel authors supposed that
Moses did so without first dying, as in the case of Elijah, having been raised
from the dead, as the gospel authors report of Jesus, or in some other post
mortem fashion. (Ryan E Stokes, “Not over Moses' Dead Body: Jude 9, 22-24
and the Assumption of Moses in their Early Jewish Context,” Journal for the
Study of the New Testament 40, no. 2 [2017]: 5-6)
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