The Reverend Professor CFD Moule
Last Updated: 2:30am BST 02/10/2007 From The Daily Telegraph UK
The Reverend Professor CFD Moule, who died yesterday aged 98, was one of the leading New
Testament scholars of his day; he held the Lady Margaret's Chair of Divinity at Cambridge from 1951 to 1976, having previously been Dean of Clare College and before that vice-principal of Ridley Hall.
An attractive personality allied to great erudition and exceptional gifts as a teacher made him a
popular Cambridge figure for more than 40 years, and his influence in the field of New Testament studies was considerable.
Born into a distinguished evangelical family — his great uncle, Handley Moule, was a scholar
Bishop of Durham in the early years of the 20th century — Moule was something of a missionary in the sense that his interpretations of the New Testament always suggested the inherent plausibility of the religious story it tells. For him this involved no compromise of scholarship, but he was a man of deep faith for whom the evidence concerning the origins of Christian religion never presented an insuperable problem.
This separated him somewhat from the more radical approach of German scholars, with whose work he was well acquainted, and from the new breed of English scholars that began to emerge in the 1960s; yet his openness to new ideas, and his readiness to consider new evidence, made it impossible to label him as a conservative, and throughout the world of New Testament scholarship his remained a name to be conjured with. As long ago as 1964 his Ethel M Wood lecture at London University on "Man and Nature in the New Testament" raised ecological questions that were later to become of common concern.
Moule's involvement in the production of the New English Bible, which he much enjoyed, satisfied his desire for the most accurate translation of Holy Scripture, using the best tools of modern scholarship, and also his belief that the Christian mission required a version of the Word of God that 20th-century readers could understand. This same dual concern was powerfully expressed in his fine sermons, which challenged both head and heart and made him one of the best preachers in England.
Charles Francis Digby Moule (he was always known as Charlie) was born on December 3 1908 in China, where his father, himself no mean scholar, was serving as a missionary.
Charlie attended Weymouth School, Dorset, and having entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a scholar carried all before him, securing Firsts in both parts of the Classical Tripos and winning the Jeremie Septuagint and Evans prizes and the Crosse scholarship.
Destined for Holy Orders, he went to Ridley Hall, Cambridge, whose first principal had been his grandfather, and after his ordination in 1933 stayed on as tutor of the college, combining this with a curacy at St Mark's church, Cambridge. A year later he decided to gain more pastoral experience as curate of St Andrew's church, Rugby, but in 1936 he was called back to Ridley Hall as vice-principal.
Moule remained there until the end of the Second World War was in sight, then, in 1944, became Fellow and Dean of Clare College and a lecturer in the university's faculty of Divinity.
Ex-service undergraduates discovered him to be a stimulating teacher as well as a caring pastor, and within a few years he was exerting a strong influence on a number of academically able men who would in due course form a significant element in the next generation of New Testament scholars. On his 60th birthday several of them contributed to a volume of essays in his honour.
It was not until 1953, two years after his appointment to the Lady Margaret's Chair, that Moule published his first book, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek; this less than exciting title concealed an important, if not widely recognised, point that discovery of the true meanings of ancient documents requires knowledge of their particular syntax.
The next 25 years saw a steady stream of volumes from Moule's pen, virtually all of which were concerned with the interpretation and exegesis of the New Testament.
His commentary on Colossians and Philemon (1951) proved to be useful to those who were still being encouraged to study the Greek text of the New Testament, while a short commentary on St Mark's Gospel (1965) was based on the text of the New English Bible.
The Birth of the New Testament (1962), which ran to three editions, became the standard work on the circumstances that led to the making of the New Testament. The Phenomenon of the New Testament (1967) — a short book which argued for the integrity of Christianity's foundation documents — also won wide praise; and The Origin of Christology (1977), which pressed the claims of development rather than evolution in the Church's understanding of the nature of Jesus, won the Collins Religious Book Prize. His final publication was Forgiveness and Reconciliation and other New Testament Themes (1998).
Moule received a number of substantial honours. From 1955 to 1976 he was canon theologian of Leicester Cathedral. In 1958 St Andrews University made him an honorary DD, and in 1966 he was elected to the British Academy, winning its Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies four years later. Emmanuel College elected him to an honorary fellowship in 1972, he was appointed CBE in 1985, and in 1988 he was awarded an honorary Cambridge DD.
None of which affected Charlie Moule's essential humility and readiness to respond to a request for a sermon or a paper, or a contribution to a festschrift for a colleague.
Short in stature, he carried into old age the cheerful perkiness and humanity that endeared him to a multitude of friends. He was unmarried.
Last Updated: 2:30am BST 02/10/2007 From The Daily Telegraph UK
The Reverend Professor CFD Moule, who died yesterday aged 98, was one of the leading New
Testament scholars of his day; he held the Lady Margaret's Chair of Divinity at Cambridge from 1951 to 1976, having previously been Dean of Clare College and before that vice-principal of Ridley Hall.
An attractive personality allied to great erudition and exceptional gifts as a teacher made him a
popular Cambridge figure for more than 40 years, and his influence in the field of New Testament studies was considerable.
Born into a distinguished evangelical family — his great uncle, Handley Moule, was a scholar
Bishop of Durham in the early years of the 20th century — Moule was something of a missionary in the sense that his interpretations of the New Testament always suggested the inherent plausibility of the religious story it tells. For him this involved no compromise of scholarship, but he was a man of deep faith for whom the evidence concerning the origins of Christian religion never presented an insuperable problem.
This separated him somewhat from the more radical approach of German scholars, with whose work he was well acquainted, and from the new breed of English scholars that began to emerge in the 1960s; yet his openness to new ideas, and his readiness to consider new evidence, made it impossible to label him as a conservative, and throughout the world of New Testament scholarship his remained a name to be conjured with. As long ago as 1964 his Ethel M Wood lecture at London University on "Man and Nature in the New Testament" raised ecological questions that were later to become of common concern.
Moule's involvement in the production of the New English Bible, which he much enjoyed, satisfied his desire for the most accurate translation of Holy Scripture, using the best tools of modern scholarship, and also his belief that the Christian mission required a version of the Word of God that 20th-century readers could understand. This same dual concern was powerfully expressed in his fine sermons, which challenged both head and heart and made him one of the best preachers in England.
Charles Francis Digby Moule (he was always known as Charlie) was born on December 3 1908 in China, where his father, himself no mean scholar, was serving as a missionary.
Charlie attended Weymouth School, Dorset, and having entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a scholar carried all before him, securing Firsts in both parts of the Classical Tripos and winning the Jeremie Septuagint and Evans prizes and the Crosse scholarship.
Destined for Holy Orders, he went to Ridley Hall, Cambridge, whose first principal had been his grandfather, and after his ordination in 1933 stayed on as tutor of the college, combining this with a curacy at St Mark's church, Cambridge. A year later he decided to gain more pastoral experience as curate of St Andrew's church, Rugby, but in 1936 he was called back to Ridley Hall as vice-principal.
Moule remained there until the end of the Second World War was in sight, then, in 1944, became Fellow and Dean of Clare College and a lecturer in the university's faculty of Divinity.
Ex-service undergraduates discovered him to be a stimulating teacher as well as a caring pastor, and within a few years he was exerting a strong influence on a number of academically able men who would in due course form a significant element in the next generation of New Testament scholars. On his 60th birthday several of them contributed to a volume of essays in his honour.
It was not until 1953, two years after his appointment to the Lady Margaret's Chair, that Moule published his first book, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek; this less than exciting title concealed an important, if not widely recognised, point that discovery of the true meanings of ancient documents requires knowledge of their particular syntax.
The next 25 years saw a steady stream of volumes from Moule's pen, virtually all of which were concerned with the interpretation and exegesis of the New Testament.
His commentary on Colossians and Philemon (1951) proved to be useful to those who were still being encouraged to study the Greek text of the New Testament, while a short commentary on St Mark's Gospel (1965) was based on the text of the New English Bible.
The Birth of the New Testament (1962), which ran to three editions, became the standard work on the circumstances that led to the making of the New Testament. The Phenomenon of the New Testament (1967) — a short book which argued for the integrity of Christianity's foundation documents — also won wide praise; and The Origin of Christology (1977), which pressed the claims of development rather than evolution in the Church's understanding of the nature of Jesus, won the Collins Religious Book Prize. His final publication was Forgiveness and Reconciliation and other New Testament Themes (1998).
Moule received a number of substantial honours. From 1955 to 1976 he was canon theologian of Leicester Cathedral. In 1958 St Andrews University made him an honorary DD, and in 1966 he was elected to the British Academy, winning its Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies four years later. Emmanuel College elected him to an honorary fellowship in 1972, he was appointed CBE in 1985, and in 1988 he was awarded an honorary Cambridge DD.
None of which affected Charlie Moule's essential humility and readiness to respond to a request for a sermon or a paper, or a contribution to a festschrift for a colleague.
Short in stature, he carried into old age the cheerful perkiness and humanity that endeared him to a multitude of friends. He was unmarried.
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