April 11, 2025
BYU Hosting Academic Conference On Abraham May 3 and 10
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
Note: As of April 26, 2025, the schedule of the conference in this article has been changed, with visiting keynote speaker Gary Rendsburg giving his remote presentation at the end of the day on May 3 rather than at the beginning of that day.
An academic conference exploring Abraham will be held in May on Brigham Young University Campus and will be open to the public.
The conference, titled “Abraham and His Family in Scripture History, and Tradition,” will be held on the first two Saturdays of next month, May 3 and 10, and will take place in the N. Eldon Tanner Building in room 251. It is sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Scripture Central, BYU Religious Education, and Faithful Answers, Informed Response (FAIR).
The conference will feature many prominent voices in the study of Abraham and ancient scripture, and present papers on subjects such as
“That Lineage”: Rival Priesthood Claims in the Book of Abraham
Sons and Fathers: Abraham’s Family and the Two Altars of the Temple
The Ten Tests of Abraham and Sarah: A Jewish Tradition
Echoes of the Temple and Jerusalem in the Abraham Story
In total, 17 presentations will be given during the conference, and a panel discussion and Q&A will take place at the end of each day. A full program, including a list of presenters and abstracts of their presentations, can be found at the Interpreter Foundation website. The program can also be found below.
Links to the sessions of the conference (for remote viewing) are as follows:
May 3 morning session (begins at 8:30 a.m.)
May 3 afternoon session (begins at 2 p.m.)
May 10 morning session (begins at 8:30 a.m.)
May 10 afternoon session (begins at 1 p.m.)
Program
Saturday May 3, 2025: Saturday Session 1
Morning Session Chair: David Seely (BYU, Ancient Scripture)
| 8:30 a.m. | Welcome and Opening Prayer by Scott Gordon |
| 8:45 a.m. | John W. Welch (Scripture Central and BYU, retired) and Michael D. Rhodes (BYU, retired) Approaching Eternal Life: Temple Elements by the Numbers in Facsimile 2 |
| 9:20 a.m. | Stephen O. Smoot (BYU, Religious Education and B. H. Roberts Foundation) Abraham the Astronomer |
| 9:55 a.m. | Allen Hansen (Independent Scholar) and Spencer Kraus (Scripture Central) “My Name Is the Sun”: Patriarchs, Planets, and the Book of Abraham |
| 10:30 a.m. | Break |
| 10:45 a.m. | David Calabro (BYU, Ancient Scripture, Visiting) “I Abraham”: The Father of the Faithful in Light of the Book of Abraham |
| 11:20 a.m. | Avram R. Shannon (BYU, Ancient Scripture) “That Lineage”: Rival Priesthood Claims in the Book of Abraham |
| 11:55 a.m. | John S. Thompson (Scripture Central, Research) Sons and Fathers: Abraham’s Family and the Two Altars of the Temple |
| 12:30 p.m. | Lunch |
Afternoon Session Chair: John S. Thompson (Scripture Central, Research)
| 2:00 p.m. | Stephen Ricks (BYU, Humanities) Proper Names and Foreign Words in the Book of Abraham |
| 2:35 p.m. | David Seely (BYU, Ancient Scripture) and Jo Ann Seely (BYU, Ancient Scripture) The Ten Tests of Abraham and Sarah: A Jewish Tradition |
| 3:10 p.m. | Break |
| 3:25 p.m. | Panel Discussion and Audience Questions (David Calabro, Michael D. Rhodes, Stephen O. Smoot, and John S. Thompson) Perspectives on the Book of Abraham |
| 4:15 a.m. | Gary A. Rendsburg (Rutgers University, Jewish Studies) Ur of the Chaldees: Where is Abraham's Birthplace? (remote presentation) |
Saturday May 10, 2025: Saturday Session 2
Keynote Session Chair: John W. Welch (Scripture Central and BYU, retired)
| 8:30 a.m. | Welcome and Opening Prayer |
| 8:45 a.m. | Gary A. Rendsburg (Rutgers University, Jewish Studies) Echoes of the Temple and Jerusalem in the Abraham Story |
| 9:45 a.m. | Break |
Morning Session Chair: Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Senior Research Scientist)
| 10:00 a.m. | John Gee (BYU, Humanities) The Redeemer and the Redeemed (remote presentation) |
| 10:35 a.m. | Jennifer C. Lane (BYU–Hawaii professor emerita, Religious Education) Ḥesed and the Redemption of Abraham |
| 11:10 a.m. | Matthew L. Bowen (BYU–Hawaii, Religious Education) “I Will Bless Thee and Make Thy Name Great”: Sacralizing Names and Spaces as a Function of Etiology in the Abrahamic Narrative |
| 11:45 a.m. | Lunch |
Afternoon Session Chair: Matthew L. Bowen (BYU–Hawaii, Religious Education)
| 1:00 p.m. | Noel B. Reynolds (BYU, retired) “And They Shall Write It”: The Literacy and Scribalism of Abraham’s Josephite Descendants (remote presentation) |
| 1:35 p.m. | Daniel C. Peterson (Interpreter Foundation, President and BYU, retired) The Qur’anic view of Abraham Samuel Zinner (discussant) (Independent Scholar) Esoteric Traditions on Abraham: Rabbinic and Kabbalistic Sources, the New Testament, and the Qurʾān |
| 2:30 p.m. | Spencer Kraus (Scripture Central) and Allen Hansen (Independent Scholar) Abraham: Man of Perfect Faith |
| 3:05 p.m. | Break |
| 3:20 p.m. | Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Senior Research Scientist) Abram Meets Melchizedek, with Joseph Smith at the Reader’s Side |
| 3:55 p.m. | Panel Discussion and Audience Questions (Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Daniel C. Peterson, Jennifer C. Lane, Gary A. Rendsburg, and John W. Welch) Personal Views on Abraham and His Family |
Proceedings Only
RoseAnn Benson (Independent Scholar)
Lot: Likened unto Noah
Dan Ellsworth (Independent Scholar)
Exploring the Akedah