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
Download audio recording
David Calabro
David Calabro is a visiting assistant professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Near Eastern languages and literatures from the University of Chicago. His research deals with issues of culture and religion, including topics such as nonverbal communication, apocryphal literature, and magic. David lives in Provo, Utah. He and his wife Ruth have seven children.
Michael D. Rhodes
Michael D. Rhodes (born 1946) is a professor emeritus of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. Rhodes is an Egyptologist who has published a translation of some of the extant Joseph Smith papyri. Rhodes received a BA in Classical Greek from BYU in 1970. He also received a BS in electrical engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology in 1982 and an MS in physics from the University of New Mexico in 1989. He has also studied Egyptology at John Hopkins University, the Free University of Berlin, and the University of Oxford, as well as archaeology at the University of Utah. Rhodes has published many articles related to the Book of Abraham through the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), including some in books edited by John Gee. At BYU, Professor Rhodes taught classes on the Old Testament, Pearl of Great Price, New Testament and Book of Mormon. He was active in several academic organizations including the American Research Center in Egypt, the American Astronomical Society, as well as the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, and the Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society. He retired from BYU in 2011.
Stephen O. Smoot
Stephen O. Smoot is a doctoral candidate in the department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literature at the Catholic University of America. He previously earned a master’s degree from the University of Toronto in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, with a concentration in Egyptology, and bachelor’s degrees from Brigham Young University in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, with a concentration in Hebrew Bible, and German Studies. He is currently an adjunct instructor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University and a research associate with the B. H. Roberts Foundation.
John S. Thompson
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.
