Presented at
2025 Abraham and His Family Conference
Saturday, May 3 and Saturday, May 10, 2025
Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Religious Education,
Scripture Central, and FAIR Latter-day Saints
Though the title of this presentation is simple enough, the Genesis chapters that relate this story are full of enigmas. It has been claimed that “no chapter in the Bible has been more widely studied than Genesis 14”—and, going further, that the episode where Melchizedek and Abram meet is “the most complex within this chapter.” “This is a chapter rife with unique literary devices, including explanatory glosses, plays on words, etymological significance of names, and even a possible use of gematria.” My purpose is to provide a Latter-day Saint perspective on this episode in the life of Abraham, in particular showing how Joseph Smith’s teachings, translations, and revelations bear on some of the most head-scratching puzzles of this pericope. While one skeptic has characterized Joseph Smith’s revelatory teachings about the Melchizedek priesthood with a sort of condescending charity, calling them simply a “misguided” case of “zeal without knowledge”—I will attempt to demonstrate that there is a plausible basis for many of these teachings in scripture and elsewhere in ancient Jewish and Christian tradition.
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Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
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 Africa, and for Interpreter is documenting selected episodes in the history of the Church in Africa on film (www.NotByBreadAloneFilm.com).
