[1] Lincoln grew up in London and attended Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, from where he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge.
He returned to England to do doctoral research at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor C. F. D. Moule and completed a dissertation on the function of the heavenly dimension in Paul's thought, gaining a Ph.D. in 1975.
[2][3] While finishing the Ph.D., Lincoln received an invitation to return to the United States as assistant professor in New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, where he taught from 1975 to 1979.
During that time he also lectured as a Visiting Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in California for the summer session of 1998.
From September 2013 Lincoln continued to work part-time at the University of Gloucestershire until his eventual retirement in March 2015 and appointment as Emeritus Professor.
Lincoln's many articles, essays and books reflect his concern with the interplay among literary, historical and theological approaches to the New Testament, and range widely across its documents.
[8] Lincoln was one of the first British New Testament scholars to apply narrative criticism to the Gospels and this interest can be seen in his early articles "The Promise and the Failure - Mark 16:7,8" in Journal of Biblical Literature;[9] "Matthew - A Story for Teachers?"
He wrote an essay “‘Born of the Virgin Mary’: Creedal Affirmation and Critical Reading” for the volume Christology and Scripture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
One review states that the author’s “execution of his task is superlative” and holds the book to be “a solidly catholic treatment and a fine example of the application of biblical scholarship and theological hermeneutics to a part of tradition too often sentimentalized or passed over with averted eyes.”[40] Lincoln also wrote "How Babies Were Made in Jesus' Time" for Biblical Archaeology Review 40.6 (2014)42-49.
[47] Lincoln provided his own more personal perspective on his career as a biblical scholar in his chapter, “Responding to and Searching for Truth” in I (Still) Believe.
[48] Among other activities, Lincoln served as General Editor of the monograph series, New Testament Guides,[12] published by Sheffield Academic Press and then T & T Clark International, and was a member of the editorial board for the journal Biblical Interpretation.
[49] His paper critiqued the appropriation of the concept of koinonia in much ecumenical literature and proposed a different approach to interpreting the New Testament material.