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D. Kelly Ogden is professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He has taught courses in Hebrew, Old and New Testament, writings of Isaiah, the Bible as literature, history of the ancient Near East, biblical and modern geography of the Holy Land, Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. For a span of fourteen years he helped administer BYU’s study programs in the Holy Land and guided students on field study trips all over Israel/Palestine, the Sinai, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Greece. He led groups of students on many walks through the Holy Land, including retracing the “three-days’ journey” of Abraham and Isaac from Beersheba to Mount Moriah, the ninety-two miles Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the two hundred miles from Dan to Beersheba, and the two-hundred mile “Lehi Trek” from Jerusalem to the Red Sea. He has climbed Mount Sinai 18 times.
Brother Ogden earned a B.A. in English and Spanish, an M.Ed. in International Education, an M.A. in Hebrew language and historical geography of the Bible, and a Ph.D. in Middle East Studies. He has presented scholarly papers in Louisville, Kentucky; Washington, D. C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; Leuven, Belgium; Vienna, Austria; and Santiago, Chile.
He is the author of several books, including
1. Where Jesus Walked - The Land and Culture of New Testament Times
2. Jerusalem, The Eternal City (with David B. Galbraith and Andrew C. Skinner)
3. Discovering the World of the Bible (with LaMar C. Berrett)
4. The President and the Preacher – Memoirs of a Mission President and Companion (with Marcia H. Ogden)
5. Pioneering the East (30 years’ involvement in the Holy Land, 1972 – 2002)
6. Before You Get to Heaven (8 Mighty Changes God Wants for You)
7. Verse by Verse – The Four Gospels (with Andrew C. Skinner)
8. Verse by Verse – Acts through Revelation (with Andrew C. Skinner)
9. The President and the Preacher II – Memoirs of a Missionary Training Center President and Companion (with Marcia H. Ogden)
His articles have appeared in the Ensign, the Liahona (the International Magazine of the Church), the Church News, the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and other LDS and non-LDS publications. He is also a frequent participant in the BYU Television scripture discussions.
For five years Brother Ogden helped prepare the LDS editions of the Scriptures, and he served on the Gospel Doctrine Writing Committee for the Church. In the 1980s he served as president of the Jerusalem Branch in Israel. In the 1990s he served as a branch president at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, as 1st counselor in a BYU stake presidency, and as president of the Chile Santiago East Mission. He has served on the high council of the Provo Edgemont Stake, as an ordinance worker in the Provo Temple, and as president of the Guatemala Missionary Training Center. He is currently (2010) a sealer in the Provo Temple.
