Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition
Proceedings of the Conference held May 3 & 10, 2025
at Brigham Young University
Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Scripture Central,
BYU Religious Education, and FAIR
Edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, & David R. Seely
Published by The Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books
Available December, 2025
Through Abraham’s faithfulness, he merited the stunningly universal promise of God that “in [him] shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Latter-day Saints, in common with those in many other religious traditions, rejoice in the ongoing fulfillment of that promise. However, though the blessings patiently, and sometimes painfully, secured by his family through unwavering faith in the face of trial and heartache are well-documented in scripture, the wealth of insights that ancient and modern scholarship can shed on these scriptural accounts is generally underappreciated.
On 3 and 10 May 2025, scholars from Latter-day Saint and other traditions gathered at Brigham Young University to discuss the enduring legacy of Abraham and his immediate family in scripture, history, and tradition. A primary focus of the conference was its focus on covenant- and temple-related themes that have been deeply woven into relevant accounts in the Bible, the Qur’an, and other religious texts. In addition, believing that authentic history sits behind modern scripture, special emphasis was given to ancient threads relating to Abrahamic material in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Book of Abraham.
This two-volume will increase the appreciation of readers for the trials and triumphs of the family of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. More importantly, it will enable them to more fully emulate their faithful lives to claim the fulness of blessings promised in the Abrahamic covenant.
Table of Contents
Studies in the Book of Abraham
- A Northern Mesopotamian Origin for Abraham? — Gary A. Rendsburg
- Approaching Eternal Life: Temple Elements by the Numbers in Facsimile 2 — John W. Welch and Michael D. Rhodes
- Abraham the Astronomer — Stephen O. Smoot
- “My Name Is the Sun”: Patriarchs, Planets, and the Book of Abraham — Allen Hansen and Spencer Kraus
- “I Abraham”: The Father of the Faithful in Light of the Book of Abraham — David Calabro
- “That Lineage”: Rival Priesthood Claims in the Book of Abraham — Avram R. Shannon
- Sons and Fathers: Abraham’s Family and the Two Altars of the Temple — John S. Thompson
- Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Abraham — Stephen Ricks
- Perspectives on the Book of Abraham — Panel: David Calabro, Michael D. Rhodes, Stephen O. Smoot, and John S. Thompson
Studies of the Family of Abraham in the Bible, the Qur’an, and Other Traditions
- Echoes of the Temple and Jerusalem in the Abraham Story — Gary A. Rendsburg
- The Redeemer and the Redeemed — John Gee
- Ḥesed and the Redemption of Abraham — Jennifer C. Lane
- I Will Bless Thee and Make Thy Name Great”: Sacralizing Names and Spaces as a Function of Etiology in the Abrahamic Narrative — Matthew L. Bowen
- The Ten Tests of Abraham and Sarah: A Jewish Tradition Applied to Reading the Bible, Rabbinic Midrash and the Book of Abraham — David Seely
- “And They Shall Write It”: The Literacy and Scribalism of Abraham’s Josephite Descendants — Noel B. Reynolds
- The Qur’anic view of Abraham — Daniel C. Peterson
- Esoteric Traditions on Abraham: Rabbinic and Kabbalistic Sources, the New Testament, and the Qurʾān — Samuel Zinner
- Abraham: Man of Perfect Faith — Spencer Kraus and Allen Hansen
- Abram Meets Melchizedek, with Joseph Smith at the Reader’s Side — Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
- Personal Views on Abraham and His Family — Panel: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Jennifer C. Lane, Daniel C. Peterson, Gary A. Rendsburg, and John W. Welch
About the Editors
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (PhD, Cognitive Science, University of Washington) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola, Florida (www.ihmc.us/groups/jbradshaw. His professional writings have explored a wide range of topics in human and machine intelligence (www.jeffreymbradshaw.net). Jeff has been the recipient of several awards and patents and has been an adviser for initiatives in science, defense, space, industry, and academia worldwide. Jeff has written detailed commentaries on the Book of Moses, Genesis, and on temple themes in the scriptures. For Church-related publications, see www.TempleThemes.net.
Jeff was a missionary in France and Belgium from 1975 to 1977, and his family has returned twice to live in France. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of four children and sixteen grandchildren. From July 2016-September 2019, Jeff and Kathleen served missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa Mission office and the DR Congo Kinshasa Temple. They currently live in Nampa, Idaho. As a church service missionary for the Church History Department, Jeff is writing histories of temples in in the DR Congo and the Republic of the Congo. For The Interpreter Foundation he is is working to document the history of the Church in Africa on film (www.NotByBreadAloneFilm.com).
John S. Thompson obtained his BA and MA in Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Hebrew Bible) from BYU and UC Berkeley respectively and completed a PhD in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania, with a dissertation emphasis on ancient priesthood. He was an employee of the Seminaries & Institutes of Religion for 28 years, most recently as a Coordinator and the Institute Director in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, area. John is now very happy to research and write full time for Scripture Central, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ancient and modern historical-cultural contexts of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other Latter-day Saint scripture. He is married to Stacey Keller from Orem, Utah, and they have nine children and six grandchildren.
Matthew L. Bowen was raised in Orem, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and is currently an associate professor in religious education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He is also the author of Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture (Salt Lake City: Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2018) and Ancient Names in the Book of Mormon: Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Witness of Christ (Salt Lake City: Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2023). With Aaron P. Schade, he is the coauthor of The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT; Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2021). He and his wife (the former Suzanne Blattberg) are the parents of three children: Zachariah, Nathan, and Adele.
Stephen D. Ricks completed his BA in Ancient Greek and MA in the Classics at Brigham Young University, and then received his PhD in ancient Near Eastern religions from the University of California, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. While completing his doctoral work he spent two years studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is now professor of Hebrew and Cognate Learning at Brigham Young University where he has been a member of the faculty for nearly thirty years.
