Dr David M. Moffitt
Dr Moffitt was appointed Reader in New Testament Studies at St Andrews University in 2013, having previously taught New Testament at Duke Divinity School and Campbell University Divinity School. His research interests orbit around the various ways the earliest Christians understood Jesus and their own identities in relation to Jewish scripture, practices, and beliefs. His work is especially focused on the Epistle to the Hebrews and the strategies the text employs to interpret early Christian claims about Jesus’ person, death, resurrection, and ascension in high-priestly and sacrificial terms. His book on Hebrews (Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrews) attempts to show that the Christology and Soteriology developed by the author rests upon his correlation of the basic narrative of early Christian proclamation (i.e., Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension) with the ritual process of the Yom Kippur sacrifices, the end goal of which was the restoration and maintenance of fellowship between God and creation (i.e., atonement).
David Moffitt was originally recommended to HST&M by the eminent theologian Tom Wright, who offered us these words: “David Moffitt is one of the very few contemporary scholars to provide fresh and compelling readings of the enigmatic Letter to the Hebrews. I have learned an enormous amount from him; in fact, I credit him with transforming my whole understanding of sacrifice in biblical thought. Also, unlike some top exegetical scholars, he is a lively and engaging speaker!”
