Apocrypha
Assumption of Moses
Testament of Moses
12 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
Moses's farewell address to Joshua, in which he prophesies the whole history of Israel down to the end — and the manuscript breaks off just before the scene that gave the book its name.
Where this text comes from
Latin, translated from Greek, with a Jewish core probably from the early 1st century AD. It survives in a single palimpsest manuscript, found by Antonio Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library in Milan in 1861 — and the text stops mid-way, incomplete.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside every canon. But it left a trace in the New Testament: Jude, at verse 9, describes the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses, and ancient writers such as Origen identify that scene with this book. The part containing it is precisely what was lost.
What you will find
- The prophecy runs through centuries of Israel's history without naming anyone, which has generated an entire literature trying to identify each figure.
- Chapter 9, with Taxo and his seven sons choosing to die in a cave rather than break the law.
- The hymn of chapter 10, about God's kingdom appearing and the end of the adversary.
- It is also called the Testament of Moses, precisely because the assumption promised by the title is not in what survives.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Jude 9 quote the Assumption of Moses?
- That has been the accepted explanation since antiquity. Origen and others attributed the dispute over Moses's body to this book. Since the manuscript is incomplete, it cannot be verified directly.