He served as
curate at St Mark's Church,
Cambridge, from 1933 to 1934, during which time he was also a tutor at
Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He moved to Rugby in 1934, became curate of
St Andrew's Church, Rugby, before moving back to Cambridge in 1936 to become curate at
Great St Mary's, Cambridge, the University Church of the
University of Cambridge, where he remained until 1940. He was also Vice-Principal of Ridley Hall from 1936 to 1944. He became a
Fellow at
Clare College, Cambridge, in 1944, serving as Dean from 1944 to 1951. He remained a Fellow at Clare until his death, and was secretary of the Clare Association for many years. He was also a Faculty Assistant Lecturer in divinity at Cambridge University from 1944 to 1947, and a University Lecturer from 1947 to 1951, when he was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, succeeding
F. S. Marsh. Founded as a readership by
Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1502, it is the oldest chair in the University of Cambridge, and is traditionally held by a New Testament scholar. He was also a non-residentiary
Canon Theologian at
Leicester Cathedral from 1955 to 1976, and was elected a
Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1966. He was a President of the
Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in 1967, and became an honorary Fellow at Emmanuel in 1972. He delivered the
Ethel M. Wood lecture in 1964, on "Man and Nature in the New Testament". He produced two main written works:
The Birth of the New Testament, first published in 1962, which explores the context in which the New Testament was written, and
The Origin of Christology, published in 1977, which proposed that the church's understanding of Jesus had not evolved but rather developed and matured over the centuries. He also contributed to the translations of the
Apocrypha and New Testament in the
New English Bible, although he preferred the
Revised Version. His other published works include
An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek (1953, 2nd ed. 1959),
The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (1957),
The Phenomenon of the New Testament (1967),
The Holy Spirit (1978), and
Essays in New Testament Interpretation (1982) and
Forgiveness and Reconciliation, and other New Testament Themes (1998). He served on the advisory board for ''
Peake's Commentary on the Bible'' (1962), and contributed the article on Colossians and Philemon. He influenced many students who now hold chairs of divinity – including his successor as Lady Margaret's Professor,
Graham Stanton – or who rose high within the Anglican hierarchy, including future
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams (Moule officiated at his wedding) and
Archbishop of York John Sentamu. His first doctoral student was
Margaret Thrall (PhD, 1960), who herself became a New Testament scholar. A humble, prayerful man, of slim build and small stature, he held a profound faith. A friend,
Joachim Jeremias, said, "In him could be seen no trace of
original sin." Like his great-uncle, he became known affectionately as "Holy Mouley". He was a leading advocate for the Ridley Hall in the early 1970s, when it was threatened with closure. He retired in 1976 and lived at Ridley Hall until 1980, acting as New Testament tutor. He moved to
Pevensey in Sussex in 1981, close to his friend, Bishop
Stanley Betts. He continued to preach into his 90s. He became an honorary
Doctorate of Divinity at
St Andrew's University in 1958, and won the
British Academy's
Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies in 1970. He was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1985 for his services to New Testament studies and became an honorary Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge in 1988, in celebration of his 80th birthday. He moved to a nursing home in
Dorset in 2003, to be near his family. He died on 30 September 2007 in
Leigh, Dorset, aged 98. He never married. ==References==