Andrew C. Skinner: Mormon Scholar
Andrew C. Skinner is a professor of ancient studies and a prolific author of gospel-related subjects. He is a member The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Skinner was born in 1951 in Colorado where he was raised. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Colorado. He went on to earn his master’s degree in Jewish Studies and the Hebrew Bible from the Iliff School of Theology and his ThM degree in biblical Hebrew from Harvard. He earned his PhD in Near Eastern and European history from the University of Denver, specializing in Judaism. He did graduate work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.
He taught religion at Ricks College (now Brigham Young University-Idaho for four years. He joined the faculty at Brigham Young University and served there as Dean of Religious Education, chair of the department of Ancient Scripture, and executive director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship in addition to his responsibilities as a professor of ancient scripture. He holds the Richard L. Evans Professorship of Religious Understanding at BYU. He has also filled four assignments at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies where he was also the associate director.
He is a member of the international editorial group that translated the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is the author, coauthor, and editor of more than two hundred articles and books on religious and historical topics, with titles that include Jerusalem: The Eternal City, Temple Worship, The Savior’s Final Week (Gethsemane, Golgotha, The Garden Tomb), Verse by Verse Series (with D. Kelly Ogden), Scriptural Parables for the Latter Days, and Third Nephi: The Fifth Gospel. His areas of research include the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ancient Near East History; U.S. Military History, and the life of Jesus Christ.
Skinner served as a full-time missionary to California from 1970 to 1972. He has served in the Church as bishop, counselor in the Israel district presidency, branch president at the Missionary Training Center (Provo, Utah). member of the Correlation Evaluation Committee, and member of the Sunday School General Board.
He and his wife, Janet, are the parents of six children and live in Utah.
