[1] Moffatt trained at the Free Church College, Glasgow, and was a practising minister at the United Free Church in Dundonald in the early years of his career.
He received the degree Doctor of Divinity from the University of St Andrews in April 1902.
[2] In 1911, he was appointed Professor of Greek and New Testament Exegesis at Mansfield College, Oxford, but he returned to Glasgow in 1915 as Professor of Church History at the United Free Church College.
From 1927 to 1939, he was Washburn Professor of Church History at the Union Theological Seminary, New York.
The Moffatt New Testament Commentary, based on his translation, has 17 volumes.