MOULTON, James Hope. Richmond, Surrey 11.10.1863 — on sea off Corsica 7.4.1917. Rev. British Iranian Scholar. Professor in Manchester. Son of Rev. William Fiddian Moulton (1835–1898), a minister, teacher and biblical scholar, and Hannah Hope, educated at Leys School in Cambridge. Studies at King’s College, Cambridge, fellow 1888-94. Ordained 1886 as Methodist priest, then assisted his father in Leys. From 1902 New Testament Tutor at Wesleyan College in Ordsbury, Manchester. From 1908 Greenwood Professor of Hellenistic Greek and Indo-European Philology at University of Manchester. In 1915 he went to India, worked as missionary and gave lectures to the Parsis. On return, a German U-boat sank his ship in the Mediterranean on 4.4. and Moulton succumbed in a lifeboat after a few days adrift. M.A. Cambridge. D.Litt. 1901 London. D.D. Edinburgh. Married 1890 Eliza Keeling Osbourne (1867–1915), two daughters and two sons.
Moulton was one of the best specialists of New Testament Greek, but also became early interested in Sanskrit and Avesta. Student of Cowell. In the Avesta he attempted to discern the doctrine of Zoroaster from that of the Mages; the former he admired as the purest non-Christian religion. Zoroaster he dated in c. 660–583 B.C.
Publications: A grammar of New Testament Greek. 1. Prolegomena. Edinburgh 1906; other works on Greek, the Bible, etc.
– Early Religious Poetry of Persia. 170 p. Cambridge 1911 (on Avesta).
– Early Zoroastrianism: lectures delivered at Oxford and in London. 18+468 p. Hibbert Lectures 1912. L. 1913.
– Religion and Religions; a study of the science of religion, pure and applied. 20+212 p. L. 1913.
– The Teaching of Zarathustra. Bombay 1917.
– The Treasure of the Magi. A Study of Modern Zoroastrianism. 15+273 p. L. 1917.
Sources: *Moulton (his brother), J.H.M. 200 p. L. 1919; A.S.P. in D.N.B. 1912-1921, 391f. & *Class. Review 31, 1917, 108-110; note in JAOS 1917; Wikipedia with portrait (claiming he was born in Cambridge).
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