About the Contributors

Richard L. Anderson (PhD, University of California, Berkeley; JD, Harvard Law School) is professor emeritus of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He also taught history at BYU and is currently research and review editor for the Joseph Smith Papers project. His books include Joseph Smith's New England Heritage, Investigating the Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, Understanding Paul, and Guide to the Life of Christ.

Brant A. Gardner received an MS in anthropology from the State University of New York, Albany, specializing in Mesoamerican ethnohistory. Although earning a living as a sales consultant for a software firm, he has kept a finger in his academic first love, publishing articles on Nahuatl mythology and kinship. He is the author of Second Witness: An Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon (Greg Kofford Books, 2007).

William J. Hamblin (PhD, University of Michigan) is a professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC (Routledge, 2006) and coauthor with David Seely of Solomon's Temple: Myth and History (Thames and Hudson, 2007).

Grant Hardy is a professor of history and religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a doctorate from Yale, he has written books and articles on early Chinese history and is the coeditor of the first volume of the Oxford History of Historical Writing (forthcoming). He is also the editor of The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition (University of Illinois Press, 2003) and the author of Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide (forthcoming from Oxford University Press). He is currently an associate editor for The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture.

Blair Dee Hodges is a computer technical support agent for Information and Technology Services at the University of Utah. He plans to graduate from the University of Utah in the spring of 2010 with a BA in mass communications and a minor in religious studies. He has reported for the Ogden Standard-Examiner and the Daily Utah Chronicle, and he has served as news editor of the Signpost, Weber State University's student newspaper. Blair is the author of LifeOnGoldPlates.com.

Louis Midgley, who earned his PhD at Brown University, is a professor emeritus of political science at Brigham Young University.

George L. Mitton, after completing graduate studies at Utah State University and Columbia University, spent his career in education and public administration, much of it with the government of the state of Oregon.

Daniel C. Peterson earned a PhD in Near Eastern languages and cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University, where he also directs the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (see meti.byu.edu).

Stephen D. Ricks (PhD, University of California, Berkeley, and Graduate Theological Union) is professor of Hebrew and cognate learning in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University.

Matthew Roper (MA, Brigham Young University) is a research scholar for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University.

Stephen O. Smoot is a volunteer with the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research (FAIR) and is a prospective student in Brigham Young University's Ancient Near Eastern Studies program. Some of the research projects he has contributed to with FAIR include studies on the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. Stephen also contributes to the online blog American Testament: The Book of Mormon at www.americantestament.blogspot.com.

John W. Welch is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School, where one of the courses he teaches is Jewish, Greek, and Roman Law in the New Testament. Since 1991 he has served as editor in chief of BYU Studies. He studied at Brigham Young, Oxford, and Duke Universities. The founder of FARMS and general editor of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, he has published widely on biblical, early Christian, and Latter-day Saint topics.