Andrew C. Skinner is Professor Emeritus of Ancient Scripture and Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University, Provo Utah (BYU). He is a former Chairperson of the Department of Ancient Scripture at BYU (1997-2000), former dean of the college of Religious Education at that institution (2000-2005), and served as the founding executive director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU from 2005-2008. From 2010 to 2013 he held the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, an endowed chair tasked with engaging in inter-faith dialogue and scholarship.
Dr. Skinner earned academic degrees (BA, MA, ThM, and PhD) from the University of Colorado, the Iliff School of Theology, Harvard University, and the University of Denver and attended Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the author or co-author of over 200 articles and essays, 21 books, and editor of 7 volumes, all on religious and historical topics, including the life of Jesus Christ, the apostolic church, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the history of the English Bible, and U.S. military history. He is a member of the international editorial board that worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, published in the multi-volume series, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, by Oxford Press. Before coming to BYU, he taught World History and Military History at Ricks College (now BYU Idaho), and prior to that taught in the history department of the University of Colorado.
Dr. Skinner has taught at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies on four different occasions, and served as its academic director twice, most recently from August 2018 through August 2019. He and his wife, Janet, have traveled extensively in the holy lands, including Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Greece, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. He and his family were living in Jerusalem in 1991 when the first Gulf War broke out.
Brother Skinner has served in a variety of callings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including bishoprics, Bishop twice, District Presidencies, stake high councils, Branch President at the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center, member of the Church’s correlation evaluation committee (responsible for reviewing LDS Church curriculum materials), and member of the Sunday School General Board. Brother Skinner is married to Janet Corbridge Skinner. They have 6 children and 10 grandchildren, in whom they delight.