'The writer of this epistle must also have had more sources of information than we now possess; for the account which he gives in the verse before us does not exactly tally with any of the various verses in the Levitical Law, where the subject is related. Nothing is said of the "book" being sprinkled with the blood, even if the other parts of the description are allowed to bear a sufficient resemblance.
'Another remarkable instance bearing upon my present argument, is the account which St. Jude gives of a contest between Michael and the Devil:—
'"Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, 'Lord rebuke thee!'"
'It is not known to what St. Jude alludes in this verse; nothing is said in the Old Testament of any contest between the Devil and the archangel Michael.
'In St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, chap, iii., v. 8, are found the names of two of the magicians who competed with Moses in magical arts in the presence of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
'"Now, as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
'It is presumed that the names, "Jannes" and "Jambres," not found in the Books of Moses, became known to St. Paul through the medium of other writings, in which many particulars of Jewish history were recorded, but now no longer in existence.
Several circumstances of the life and acts of Moses are known to us, only because they are noticed in the New Testament, no mention being made of them in the old Jewish Scriptures. For instance, in Acts vii., v. 22, etc., we are told that—
'"Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren of Israel, etc."
'But in the Book of Exodus the account of these things is much shorter, and nothing is said of the age of Moses at the time referred to.