He commenced his career at King's College London before being appointed to the Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen in 1999.
The result was Paul, Judaism, and the Gentiles: A Sociological Approach, which chronicles Watson's change of mind.
Watson has contested the existence of the hypothetical Gospel Q, instead arguing for the Farrer Hypothesis where Luke used Matthew.
[3] Ted Dorman suggests that for Watson, "hermeneutical sovereignty resides not in the text but in the subject matter to which it points" – namely, Jesus Christ.
[5] Watson's work has been endorsed by Dale Allison, Simon Gathercole, and Lewis Ayres.