Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Jude · About this commentary
The Archangel and the Accuser
Jude 1:8-10
8 Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. · WEB
The highest angel in Scripture would not rail even at the devil; the intruders rail at what they have never understood.
The dreamers defile flesh, despise authority, and rail at glories. Against them Jude sets one scene. Michael the archangel, contending with the devil over the body of Moses, brought no slanderous verdict: may the Lord rebuke you — the exact words spoken to Satan in Zechariah's courtroom Zechariah 3:1–2.
Scripture explains the dispute from its own pages. Moses died in Moab and Yahweh buried him; no man knows his grave Deuteronomy 34:5–6. Yet Moses stands alive with Elijah on the mountain of transfiguration Matthew 17:3. The contest Jude glimpses had a resurrection at stake, and the mountain shows how it ended. As for the disputant: archangelos G743 appears exactly twice in the New Testament — here, and at the descent of the Lord, where the archangel's voice attends the raising of the dead 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Daniel knows Michael as the great prince who stands for God's people Daniel 12:1–2.
Verse 10 closes it: these men rail at what they do not know and are destroyed by what they know by instinct. Michael, knowing most, railed least. Real authority defers to the Lord's rebuke; the loudest slander comes from the least standing.
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