Books by Nicholas Moore
How can impure, earthbound humans gain access to God, who is holy and in heaven? In ancient Israe... more How can impure, earthbound humans gain access to God, who is holy and in heaven? In ancient Israel and much of the ancient world, the answer was obvious: by means of a temple. The temple gives access to God because it images the cosmos. The Open Sanctuary explores how the concept of a heavenly temple emerged as an important theological concept for early Christians. They developed their understanding of Christ and his work in part through their understanding of heaven as temple. Nicholas Moore examines the heavenly temple concept in the New Testament within its Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts, demonstrating that the ministry of Jesus gives believers access to the dwelling place of God himself. Moore explores conceptions of the heavenly temple in the ancient world, Second Temple Judaism, the book of Revelation, Hebrews, the Gospels, Acts, and other early Christian literature. One important contribution of the book is to provide a corrective to the way many people understand the Jerusalem temple in early Christian thought.
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Repetition has had a chequered and often negative reception in Christian history, especially in c... more Repetition has had a chequered and often negative reception in Christian history, especially in connection with ritual and liturgy, and the Letter to the Hebrews lies at the heart of this contested understanding. Nicholas Moore shows that repetition in Hebrews does not operate in uniform contrast to the once-for-all death of Christ but rather functions in a variety of ways, many of them constructive. The singularity of the Christ event is elucidated with reference to the once-yearly Day of Atonement to express all-surpassing theological sufficiency, and repetition can contrast or coexist with this unique event. In particular, Moore argues that the daily Levitical sacrifices foreshadow the Christian’s continual access to and worship of God. This reappraisal of repetition in Hebrews lays foundations for renewed appreciation of repetition’s importance for theological discourse and religious life.
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Edited Volumes by Nicholas Moore
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Journal Articles by Nicholas Moore
Irish Theological Quarterly, 2024
In the face of continued debates about Christian supersessionism with regard to Judaism, this art... more In the face of continued debates about Christian supersessionism with regard to Judaism, this article revisits two texts which have been thought to display the harshest anti-temple attitudes in the New Testament: Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, and the Letter to the Hebrews. Many scholars believe these two texts are connected, and a perceived anti-cultic attitude forms one of the key alleged similarities between the two. The article first examines shared lexical and conceptual points between the two texts, affirming their proximity. It then examines each text’s cult attitude in turn. Stephen portrays the temple as divinely given yet always subordinate to God’s heavenly presence. Hebrews frames deficiencies in the Levitical cultus as divinely intended in light of the heavenly tabernacle. These texts therefore do not condemn but instead relativize Israel’s earthly sanctuary/ies, in keeping with themes in Israel’s Scriptures, and thus should not be regarded as supsersessionist.
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Westminster Theological Journal, 2023
The phrase "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) is often cited to urge C... more The phrase "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3) is often cited to urge Christians to defend and promote the deposit of faith. In his 1983 Word Biblical Commentary, Richard Bauckham related this command to 'contend' to the positive injunctions in Jude 20-23, and not to the condemnation of the ungodly intruders in Jude 5-19; his position has been widely but not universally followed. This article offers an alternative structural proposal, that Jude 17-19 should be considered an "overlapping segment," which both concludes the denunciation of the opponents and also introduces the letter's exhortations. On this basis, Bauckham's structural proposal can be modified and, accordingly, the command "to contend" should be understood to encompass not only the positive commands of Jude 20-23, but also careful exegetical work including, where necessary, in the service of denouncing the ungodly.
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Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, 2023
It is a commonplace of ancient Near Eastern worldviews that temples have cosmic significance. Thi... more It is a commonplace of ancient Near Eastern worldviews that temples have cosmic significance. This understanding persists and develops in the Second Temple period, with numerous texts witnessing to a widely held belief that the Jerusalem temple reflected heaven or the universe. Scholars have largely been content either to recognize a basic relationship, or to distinguish temple-in-heaven from templeas-universe, sometimes construing the former as "apocalyptic" and the latter as "Hellenistic." Jonathan Klawans' work represents an important articulation of this distinction. This article summarizes his contribution, and critiques it on the grounds that it remains overly dichotomous and does not do full justice to the evidence. Instead, a fresh taxonomy is proposed with four key categories, each illustrated from Second Temple and biblical texts. None of these categories is discrete, rather they demarcate a spectrum or scale of ways that ancient Jewish and early Christian writers conceptualized the heaven-temple relationship.
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Revue Biblique, 2023
RESUME [English below] Cet article propose une exégèse des traditions sur le voile du temple dans... more RESUME [English below] Cet article propose une exégèse des traditions sur le voile du temple dans les évangiles synoptiques et l'épître aux Hébreux, qui met en relief les associations cosmiques et cultuelles par rapport à l'événement Jésus-Christ. Cette exégèse fournit la fondation pour une comparaison de ces traditions, qui révèle une tradition commune qui est néanmoins développée de différentes manières dans chaque texte. L'étude indique que l'interprétation biblique doit éviter soit de séparer entièrement les traditions sur la voile dans les synoptiques et dans Hébreux, soit d'imposer la perspective d'Hébreux sur les synoptiques.
ABSTRACT This article exegetes the sanctuary veil traditions in the Synoptics and Hebrews, drawing out their cosmic and cultic associations in relation to the Christ event. This exegesis forms the basis for a comparison of these traditions. This comparison reveals a common basic tradition, which is developed in different ways within each text. The study indicates that tendencies among interpreters either to hold the veil references in the Synoptics and Hebrews entirely apart, or to impose Hebrews' framework upon the Synoptic veil passages, are unsatisfactory. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.-Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III Scene I
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Vigiliae Christianae, 2022
Only one allusion to the phrase “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) survives from t... more Only one allusion to the phrase “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) survives from the early church, in Book 10 of Origen’s Commentary on John. This article establishes that Origen is offering a close paraphrase of this saying, and suggests that it appears as a slogan, possibly reflecting use by other Christians, in favour of overriding the implications of the spiritual reading of John 2.20–22. It shows how Origen’s interpretative procedures – distinguishing literal and spiritual senses, and invoking the key principle of Scripture’s internal harmony – interact and combine to resist this deployment of Jude 3. Although this requires Origen to admit some kind of “change of good things once given to the saints”, it constitutes an application and further elucidation of his careful exegetical method which, ultimately, “preserves the harmony of the narrative of the Scriptures”.
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New Testament Studies, 2022
Numerous scholars have argued that in Luke-Acts the location of sacred space or divine presence p... more Numerous scholars have argued that in Luke-Acts the location of sacred space or divine presence passes from the Jerusalem temple to Jesus, Christian believers, or both; in Acts, this transfer is understood as integral to the universal mission. The present article argues that such studies overlook the important motif of heaven as temple, which plays a role in Jesus' trial and crucifixion and the Stephen and Cornelius episodes. Using Edward Soja's spatial theory, previous studies' binary categorisation of temple space is critiqued. The heavenly temple disrupts and reconstitutes understandings of sacred space, and thus undergirds the universal spread of the Way.
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Neotestamentica, 2021
Both Revelation's apocalyptic opening of heaven, and its portrayal of heavenly space in cultic te... more Both Revelation's apocalyptic opening of heaven, and its portrayal of heavenly space in cultic terms, have been extensively studied by scholars. The intersection of these two features, however, has not received significant attention. This article examines references to the opening of the heavenly sanctuary in Revelation, arguing that they relate primarily, though not only, to judgment. It then turns to Revelation 21, where there is a striking change in cultic language, in particular the statement of the sanctuary's absence (Rev 21:22). It argues that this shift is a coherent development from open sanctuary language earlier in Revelation, but one that lays the emphasis on salvation. Finally, comparison to heavenly openings in other biblical and apocalyptic texts uncovers parallel motifs whilst suggesting that Revelation stands apart in the extent of its emphasis upon first judgment and then salvation.
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Tyndale Bulletin, 2021
Many scholars hold that the Letter to the Hebrews portrays heaven as God's true tabernacle, the o... more Many scholars hold that the Letter to the Hebrews portrays heaven as God's true tabernacle, the original from which the Mosaic tabernacle was derived. Recently Philip Church, building on work by Lincoln Hurst, has argued that the heavenly tabernacle instead represents God's eschatological dwelling with his people, and that the Mosaic tabernacle (and the temple that followed it) was a prior sketch and foreshadowing of this yet-future reality. They advance a number of important arguments which have not been systematically addressed by those who read the true tabernacle as primarily heavenly in a spatial and 'vertical' sense. This article examines and rebuts the arguments of Hurst and Church. First, the case for the 'eschatological dwelling' position is outlined; then I make two wider points regarding the cosmological presuppositions that underlie this view; next, the meaning of the key terminology in Hebrews 8-9, especially ὑπόδειγμα, is examined; finally, Hebrews' perspective on the heavenly tabernacle is articulated with an eye to both cosmology and eschatology. Only by integrating spatial and temporal categories can a satisfactory account of God's heavenly dwelling be offered.
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Early Christianity, 2020
Zusammenfassung [English below]
Dieser Artikel stellt die Annahme in Frage, dass die Einmaligkeit... more Zusammenfassung [English below]
Dieser Artikel stellt die Annahme in Frage, dass die Einmaligkeit der christlichen Taufe der Taufe des Johannes entstammt. Im Zusammenhang mit jüdischen Immersionen ist die Taufe des Johannes wahrscheinlich wiederholbar. Eine zweistufige Entwicklung der christlichen Taufe, zunächst zu einem einmaligen Initiationsritus und danach zu einem nicht wiederholbaren Ereignis, ergibt aufgrund der Quellenlage am meisten Sinn.
Abstract
This article challenges the assumption that the once only aspect of Christian baptism derives from John's baptism. In the context of Jewish immersions, John's baptism should prima facie be understood as repeatable. The available historical evidence suggests a two-stage development of Christian baptism, first into a one-time initiation rite, and then into an event that is unrepeatable for theological reasons.
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JSNT, 2020
A growing number of scholars have argued that Christ's offering in Hebrews is not limited to the ... more A growing number of scholars have argued that Christ's offering in Hebrews is not limited to the cross but extends into heaven; in recent work David Moffitt contends that Christ's heavenly, atoning offering is perpetual and coextensive with his intercession. This article calls this further step into question, by examining the function of Christ's heavenly session in Hebrews' construal of sacrificial process, and by exploring the nature of his heavenly intercession and its relation to his offering and enthronement. It argues that Christ's session is a hinge, marking an emphatic close to his sacrificial work for the forgiveness of sins, and inaugurating his royal reign and priestly prayer.
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Bulletin for Biblical Research
The significance of "entering" and "approaching" terminology in Hebrews has been contested, with ... more The significance of "entering" and "approaching" terminology in Hebrews has been contested, with some scholars viewing these terms as clearly distinct, and others arguing they are fully synonymous. This debate is often framed in eschatological terms: when rest or heaven is entered. This article instead explores these questions from a cosmological point of view. First, language of "vertical" and "horizontal" as applied to Hebrews' cosmology is critiqued for its imprecision and lack of explanatory power with respect to the entrance and approach passages in the letter. In place of a neat vertical/horizontal distinction, it is suggested that we find a complex and plural, yet nevertheless consistent, distinction between earth and heaven. Secondly, four passages in Hebrews are examined at greater length in the context of OT and Second Temple period texts, in order to demonstrate that it is more coherent in cosmological terms to regard approaching and entering as separate rather than identical movements.
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This article argues that in Heb. 4.10 the substantival aorist participle ὁ εἰσελθών should be tra... more This article argues that in Heb. 4.10 the substantival aorist participle ὁ εἰσελθών should be translated ‘the one who entered’, and that its implied subject is Christ; it further suggests that, understood this way, this verse coheres with Hebrews’ strong emphasis on the completed nature of Christ’s salvific work, expressed in particular with the image of Christ’s enthronement or session using Ps. 110.1. The article thus challenges the view that the rest motif in Heb. 3–4 is purely a ‘sermon illustration’ with no connection to the strong Christology pervading the rest of the letter; additionally it underscores the creativity with which the author expresses the sufficiency of the Christ event, and strengthens the proximity of the motifs of entering rest and entering the heavenly sanctuary.
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At the end of the fourth century AD Jerome writes that many reject the Epistle of Jude because it... more At the end of the fourth century AD Jerome writes that many reject the Epistle of Jude because it quotes from ‘the apocryphal book of Enoch’, though he himself accepts Jude as Scripture. This illustrates how the attribution of authority to 1 Enoch in Jude poses a problem in subsequent reception history, raising two interrelated questions: how did Jude’s citation affect the reception of 1 Enoch in the early church? And how did 1 Enoch affect the reception of Jude? Tracing the reception of each text, and focussing particularly on extant references to both texts and their relationship, this article argues that early doubts about Jude are the result of non-universal attestation, rather than its use of 1 Enoch, and that citing an apocryphal text became a ‘problem’ only as the canon developed. It concludes that authors from the fourth century onwards attribute earlier concerns about Jude’s authority to its use of 1 Enoch, thereby conflating two very different causes for such doubts.
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Book Chapters by Nicholas Moore
One God, One People: Oneness and Unity in Early Christianity
The Catholic Epistles and Hebrews share several concerns bearing on questions of oneness and unit... more The Catholic Epistles and Hebrews share several concerns bearing on questions of oneness and unity with other early Christian and ancient texts: disunity and strife, community life and cohesion, relationship to outsiders, persecution and perseverance. This essay argues that the oneness of God in James and the Johannine Epistles underlies appeals to ethical and social cohesion; this is a familiar correlation, seen in many other early Christian texts. I also make the case that the singularity of divinely-initiated event in Jude, 1 Peter, and most extensively in Hebrews (expressed primarily with the term "once for all") fulfils similar social and ethical functions to the singularity of divine being. That is to say, alongside the "oneness" motif, we can also discern a "onceness" motif in early Christian literature. This essay will demonstrate that these notions play analogous roles, and thus that divine "on(c)eness" is fundamentally constitutive of Christian social identity.
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Books by Nicholas Moore
Edited Volumes by Nicholas Moore
Journal Articles by Nicholas Moore
ABSTRACT This article exegetes the sanctuary veil traditions in the Synoptics and Hebrews, drawing out their cosmic and cultic associations in relation to the Christ event. This exegesis forms the basis for a comparison of these traditions. This comparison reveals a common basic tradition, which is developed in different ways within each text. The study indicates that tendencies among interpreters either to hold the veil references in the Synoptics and Hebrews entirely apart, or to impose Hebrews' framework upon the Synoptic veil passages, are unsatisfactory. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.-Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III Scene I
Dieser Artikel stellt die Annahme in Frage, dass die Einmaligkeit der christlichen Taufe der Taufe des Johannes entstammt. Im Zusammenhang mit jüdischen Immersionen ist die Taufe des Johannes wahrscheinlich wiederholbar. Eine zweistufige Entwicklung der christlichen Taufe, zunächst zu einem einmaligen Initiationsritus und danach zu einem nicht wiederholbaren Ereignis, ergibt aufgrund der Quellenlage am meisten Sinn.
Abstract
This article challenges the assumption that the once only aspect of Christian baptism derives from John's baptism. In the context of Jewish immersions, John's baptism should prima facie be understood as repeatable. The available historical evidence suggests a two-stage development of Christian baptism, first into a one-time initiation rite, and then into an event that is unrepeatable for theological reasons.
Book Chapters by Nicholas Moore
ABSTRACT This article exegetes the sanctuary veil traditions in the Synoptics and Hebrews, drawing out their cosmic and cultic associations in relation to the Christ event. This exegesis forms the basis for a comparison of these traditions. This comparison reveals a common basic tradition, which is developed in different ways within each text. The study indicates that tendencies among interpreters either to hold the veil references in the Synoptics and Hebrews entirely apart, or to impose Hebrews' framework upon the Synoptic veil passages, are unsatisfactory. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead.-Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III Scene I
Dieser Artikel stellt die Annahme in Frage, dass die Einmaligkeit der christlichen Taufe der Taufe des Johannes entstammt. Im Zusammenhang mit jüdischen Immersionen ist die Taufe des Johannes wahrscheinlich wiederholbar. Eine zweistufige Entwicklung der christlichen Taufe, zunächst zu einem einmaligen Initiationsritus und danach zu einem nicht wiederholbaren Ereignis, ergibt aufgrund der Quellenlage am meisten Sinn.
Abstract
This article challenges the assumption that the once only aspect of Christian baptism derives from John's baptism. In the context of Jewish immersions, John's baptism should prima facie be understood as repeatable. The available historical evidence suggests a two-stage development of Christian baptism, first into a one-time initiation rite, and then into an event that is unrepeatable for theological reasons.
University of Aberdeen, sets out to ask what it means to think biblically about autism, and what this might mean for the church.