Annotation XCI

”The mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him.” — Matthew 20:20

Whether Moses died.

Hilary, in canon 20 on Matthew, hands down that Moses is not yet dead, but lives until the time of Antichrist — in whose [time] he will be slain together with the prophet Elijah. His words run thus: “Christ, having taken Peter and James and John, appeared with the appearance of his glory, Moses and Elijah accompanying [him] on the mountain. And we understand these same two prophets, [who were] preceding his [Antichrist’s] coming, [to be those] whom John’s Apocalypse says are to be slain by Antichrist — although the opinions of very many have arisen variously, whether concerning Enoch or concerning Jeremiah, that the other of them, like Elijah, must die. But we cannot corrupt the truth of the faith, which the Lord revealed by the three above-mentioned witnesses, by the opinion of our own [private] sense —

— nor think that others are to come than those who have been seen to come to the pledge of faith. And although it is not necessary to opine beyond the evangelical truth: yet if anyone diligently considers the condition both of the death and of the sepulcher of Moses — [and] if he has obtained knowledge of the secret [hidden] Scriptures, according to the authority of the Apostle — he will understand that all [these things] were so treated [handled] that Moses could now [already] have been seen. That Ambrose thought this same [thing] is clear from those [passages] which were noted above, Annotation 61 of book 5.