John A. Tvedtnes
John A. Tvedtnes (born January 26th, 1941) retired in 2007 as senior resident scholar with the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He holds an M.A. in Linguistics and an M.A. in Middle East Studies (Hebrew).
Biography
Tvedtnes was born in Mandan, North DAKOTA to Roman Catholics parents. He converted to Mormonism at the age of nine when his family moved to Salt Lake City. Tvedtnes served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and Switzerland. Tvedtnes and his wife Carol currently live in Bella Vista, Arkansas. He fathered six children by his first wife.
Academic and Apologetic Career
Tvedtnes received both his bachelors and his masters degrees at the University of Utah. From 1971-1979 Tvednes was living in Israel while studying at Hebrew University. He also studied Arabic and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Tvednes has been a member of the World Union of Jewish Studies, the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Society for Early Historic Archaeology.
He is perhaps best known as a Mormon apologist and has published many works defending Mormonism as part of FARMS, though he has done other work during his academic career.
Publications
Tvedtnes has published ten books and more than 300 articles. His articles have been published by such diverse institutions as the University of Utah, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Brigham Young University, the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), and the Society for Early Historic Archaeology.