Theophylact of Ohrid, on Jude 1:9

“When Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he durst not bring against him the judgment of railing speech, but said: The Lord command thee.”

“Since the apostle mentioned evil speaking, he reproves not only the blasphemers, but also persuades all people not to defile their tongues with such evil, not to employ it even against those who deserve it, and says: "Michael the Archangel," and so on. He speaks as if to say: they hastily and uncontrollably speak evil of everyone, but this ought not to be so. For it is unjust to speak evil even of those who deserve evil speaking, as is evident from the conduct of the Archangel Michael. Contending with the devil about the body of Moses, he could have reproached the devil for his shamelessness, yet he did not do so, but only said to him: The Lord rebuke you, devil! In another sense: if the Archangel acted this way, then we too, in a dispute with a man, our brother and kinsman, ought not to employ evil speaking. The dispute about the body of Moses was as follows. In the apocryphal writings it is said: the Archangel Michael ministered at the burial of the body of Moses; the devil would not allow this, but charged Moses with the guilt of killing the Egyptian, and on account of such guilt declared Moses unworthy of burial. The Apostle Jude recalls this in order not only to teach us not to be quick to speak evil, but also to show us that all people, upon departing from the body, must give an account of everything; that the God of the Old and New Testaments is one and the same; that upon our passage from this world, the devil together with his evil demons rises up against our souls, wishing to cut short their blessed journey: he opposes them, while the good angels fight on their behalf, as the holy Anthony saw. So it could have happened then as well. Only Michael repelled the devil at that time by rebuking him, not by his own authority, but by committing the judgment to the Lord of all, saying: The Lord rebuke you, devil!”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.