Jude 1:9

But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Barclay's summary of the meaning of this whole verse is excellent: "If the greatest of good angels refused to speak evil of the greatest of evil angels, even in circumstances like that, then surely no human being may speak evil of any angel."[33]

It is absolutely unnecessary to suppose that Jude was here quoting from Philo, or the apocryphal book of Enoch, or Josephus, or "The Assumption of Moses," nor any one of half dozen alleged "sources." The last clause of this verse is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Zechariah 3:2; and we may be certain that the rest of this verse is just as authentic as the last clause. It is helpful to remember that the writer of this epistle had been reared in the same family with Jesus Christ our Lord, having had more than a quarter of a century of the most intimate association with the Lord, and that such a statement as is found in this verse undoubtedly reflects the Saviour's own supernatural wisdom. It should not disturb anyone that the kernel of truth mentioned here was endlessly vulgarized and extended in an apocryphal book. See under Jude 1:1:14.

Michael the archangel ... If Jude had been thinking of the book of Enoch here, he would certainly have written, "Michael, one of the archangels," for that book names seven: "Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saragaej, Gabriel, and Remiel."[34] The word "archangel" occurs only in this verse and in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 in the New Testament; and it is quite likely that there is only one archangel, namely, Michael. "There can be properly only one archangel, one chief, or head of all the angelic host."[35] Other glimpses we have of Michael in the Bible always show him as the head singular of the holy angels, as in Daniel 10:13,21, and Daniel 12:1, and also in Revelation 12:7. Jude's usage of the term "archangel" is fully in keeping with this view, being certainly opposed to the apocryphal notions of a whole order of archangels. All of the diligence of scholars to find the source of Jude's letter in the shameful book of Enoch (not even in the Apocryphal section of the Catholic Bible) border very closely upon a denial of his inspiration.

What is indicated in Jude's words here is that there was conflict between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses; we may surmise (and it is only that) that perhaps Satan wanted to use the body for purposes like the worship of relics in succeeding ages. At any rate, the lesson is, THE archangel did not bring a railing accusation against the devil himself, saying, "The Lord rebuke thee" (Zechariah 3:2). How strange it is that mortal, weak, ignorant, vile and sinful men would rail against heavenly beings, a thing which the archangel would not do, even though apparently having the right to have done so.

[33] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 221.

[34] Albert E. Barnett, op. cit., p. 329.

[35] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, Vol. VI (London: Carlton and Porter, 1829), p. 952.