S. Kent Brown is an emeritus professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University and is the former director of the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. He taught at BYU from 1971 to 2008. During 1978–79, he spent a year in Cairo where he was a fellow of the American Research Center in Egypt while working on the collection of ostraca at the Coptic Museum. From 1979 to 1989, he served as Assistant Editor and Managing Editor for The Coptic Encyclopedia (1991). From 1984 to 1989, he led a successful effort to microfilm early Christian manuscripts in Egypt and Israel, an enterprise funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. From 1988 to 1992, he was a member of the Board of Editors for The Encyclopedia of Mormonism (1992). He has worked on archaeological teams in Egypt, Israel and Oman. He is married to the former Gayle Oblad; they are the parents of five children and the grandparents of twenty-five grandchildren.
New Testament Commentary publication: The Testimony of Luke.
Selected publications pertinent to New Testament
Articles and Books
“James the Just and the Question of Peter’s Leadership in the Light of New Sources.” In Sidney B. Sperry Symposium Papers, 10–16. Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1973.
With C. Wilfred Griggs. ““The Messiah and the Manuscripts”.” Ensign, September 1974, 68–73.
“Jesus and the Gospels in Recent Literature: A Brief Sketch.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought vol. 9 no. 3 (1974): 71–73.
With C. Wilfred Griggs. “The 40-day Ministry.” Ensign, August 1975, 6–11.
With C. Wilfred Griggs. ““The Apocalypse of Peter: Introduction and Translation”.” BYU Studies vol. 15 no. 1 (1975): 131–45.
“Jewish and Gnostic Elements in the Second Apocalypse of James.” Novum Testamentum 17 (1975): 225–37.
“Extracanonical Literature: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament.” In A Symposium on the New Testament, 45–49. Salt Lake City: Church Educational System, 1980.
“The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Mormon Perspective”. BYU Studies vol. 23 no. 1 (1983): 49–66.
“The Four Gospels as Testimonies.” In The Eleventh Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium Papers, 43–56. Provo, UT: BYU Press, 1983.
With Robert J. Matthews and Victor L. Ludlow. “The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible: A Panel”. In Scriptures for the Modern World, edited by Paul R. Cheesman and C. Wilfred Griggs, 75–99, especially 80–88, 92–94. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1984.
“The Testimony of Mark.” In Studies in Scripture, Volume Five: The Gospels, edited by Kent P. Jackson and Robert L. Millet, 61–87. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1986.
“Whither the Early Church?” in Studies in Scripture, Volume Six: Acts to Revelation, edited by Robert L. Millet, 276–84. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987.
With C. Wilfred Griggs. “The Postresurrection Ministry.” In Studies in Scripture, Volume Six: Acts to Revelation, edited by Robert L. Millet, 12–23. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987.
“Whither the Early Church,”? Ensign, October 1988, 6–10.
“Apostle,” “Gethsemane,” “Israel,” “Lehi.” In Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. New York: Macmillan, 1991.
“Egypt, History of (Greco-Roman),” “Egyptian, The,” “Sayings of Jesus, Oxyrhynchus,” “Souls, Preexistence of,” “Truth, Gospel of.” In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
“Moses and Jesus: The Old Adorns the New.” In The Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi 9–30, This is My Gospel, edited by Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., 89–100. Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1993.
“The Temple in Luke and Acts.” In Revelation, Reason, and Faith: Essays in Honor of Truman G. Madsen, edited by Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks, 615–33. Provo, UT: FARMS, 2002.
Mary and Elisabeth: Noble Daughters of God. American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2002. 122 pages, one map.
“The Arrest.” In From the Last Supper through the Resurrection: The Savior’s Final Hours, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, 165–209. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003.
“Zacharias and Elisabeth, Joseph and Mary.” In The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ: From Bethlehem through the Sermon on the Mount, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, 91–120. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005.
“The Twelve.” In The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ: From the Transfiguration through the Triumphal Entry, edited by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Thomas A. Wayment, 98–124. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006.
“The Savior’s Compassion.” Ensign, March 2011, 51–53.
“Peter’s Keys,” in The Ministry of Peter the Chief Apostle, Frank F. Judd Jr., Eric D. Huntsman, and Shon D. Hopkin, eds. (Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2014), 91–102.
“The Lost 500 Years: From Malachi to John the Baptist,” Ensign 44 (December 2014): 56–60; co-authored with Richard Neitzel Holzapfel.
“Missionaries in War and Peace (Helaman 4–5),” in An Eye of Faith: Essays Written in Honor of Richard O. Cowan, Kenneth L. Alford and Richard E. Bennett, eds. (Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2015), 305–19.
The Testimony of Luke (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2015).
Light on a Hill: The Story of Robert C. Taylor and the BYU Jerusalem Center. (Private publisher, 2015).
“Nice Try, But No Cigar: A Response to Three Patheos Posts on Nahom (1 Nephi 16:34),” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 19 (2016): 149–52.
Films
Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God (2010), executive producer for a seven-part documentary on Jesus Christ. 2010. Production of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU.
Golden Road: The Ancient Incense Trail (2005). Production of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU.
Areas of Expertise: New Testament Gospels; Lehi and Sariah in Arabia; Early Egyptian Christianity
Areas of Research: The Gospel of Luke; Lehi and Sariah in Arabia; Early Egyptian Christianity
BYU Courses Taught: Book of Mormon, New Testament, Old Testament, Pearl of Great Price, Early Christian Literature, Historical Background of the New Testament, Beginning Coptic, Beginning Hebrew
Languages: Greek, Coptic, Hebrew
Kent Brown in a grove of olive trees, Sicily, 2013.
Kent Brown at the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem.
Kent Brown taking photos, in the Augusta Victoria tower, Mount Scopus.
Kent Brown in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah.
Kent Brown with BYU students, on the balcony of the BYU Jerusalem Center, 1988.
Kent Brown biking up Alpe d’Huez in 2005.