Abulensis denies [it] — he who holds Moses died in the valley in which he was buried, not on Mount Nebo itself; and even if he had died on the mountain,—
(col. 245)
—[even if he had died on the mountain], yet [that] he alone ascended thither, and so [that] no one was present at [him] dying. But that he died on the mountain the Latin and Hebrew text teach. For, since no mention of a valley, but only of a mountain, had been made, it is said (v. 5): “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there.” But that, when Moses ascended into that mountain, many accompanied him, and were present at [him] dying, Cajetan teaches; and among these he especially names Joshua. And this is quite likely. For otherwise [Moses] would have established him [as] dead to the people only from his own preceding predictions of his death; and it could have been thought by some [that] he had so spoken of himself — whether according to ordinary custom, or out of modesty of mind — but [that] God had translated him, like Enoch or Elijah, into paradise. For there were not lacking [those] who suspected him to be Mercury, or the Egyptians’ god Thoth (as Artapanus says, in Eusebius, Preparation bk. 9), or some one of the other gods (as St. Epiphanius says, heresy 55, and Cyril, bk. 1 Against Julian); and again others reckoned him not even dead (as, [in] Canon 20, St. Hilary; bk. 1 On Cain; St. Ambrose; and others, in St. Basil, sermon On Death, which is in the third volume of St. Ephrem; and many likewise of the more recent — as Catharinus, on Gen. 1 & 2; John Arboreus, book of Theosophy, ch. 11; others, in Joachim the Abbot, on Apoc. 11). What would the Jews once have done, if none of them had seen him dead? That our Joshua was present at [Moses] dying, the Talmudists teach (Tractate Temurah, ch. 2, f. 16) — though there, in their manner, they weave in an inept fable. For they say [that], in the very hour in which Moses, dying, departed niphtar le-gan Eden [נפטר לגן עדן, “passed away to the garden of Eden”], that is, into paradise, he said to Joshua that, if he had any doubts and difficulties in the Law, he should ask them now. But that one [Joshua], elated with pride, denied [that] he had anything of doubts, [saying] he knew all — since he had never departed from Moses himself, but (as said above, ch. 6) had not withdrawn from the tabernacle. And therefore Moses was indignant at him, and a penalty was divinely inflicted on him, that he forgot three hundred rulings of the Law, and was vexed by seven hundred doubtful [ones] — nay, [that] three thousand rulings of the Law of this kind came into oblivion in the very time of the Mosaic mourning. But these are Rabbinic fictions, which — although, like a certain apologue, they warn lest anyone, even the most learned, presume on himself and swell up vainly — yet wrongly impose upon Joshua himself the person of an arrogant and proud man. For even in fables decorum is to be kept. But this now [is] enough: that, by the Rabbis’ opinion at least, Joshua was present at Moses departing hence. And this — as he is wont to borrow nearly all his [material] from the Talmud — Rashi repeats at the beginning of the first chapter of Joshua. But the Deuteronomy commentary, which is called Rabbah, establishes Moses [as dying] alone (f. 302b & 303); yet it proposes a pleasant [thing], as it were a Comedy, when it narrates Moses’s many complaints and prayers to God that he might not die; likewise the snares and attempts of Samael, the prince of the Devils; and at last the descent of God Himself from the heaven of heavens, with three Angels — Michael, Gabriel, and Zagzagel — who addressed the dying [Moses], and composed [him].