Brent J. Schmidt taught at Brigham Young University–Idaho in the religion and humanities departments when this was written. He earned degrees in history and classics from the University of Utah and a PhD in classics from the University of Colorado–Boulder. He is interested in patristics, ancient and modern utopian communities, Greco-Roman history, and New Testament Studies. He is on the BYU New Testament Commentary Series Board of Editors and he is the co-author of the Matthew, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude volumes with John Welch. He received the Hugh Nibley Fellowship (2003–2007) from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. He is a BYU Studies Research Fellow (2011–present). He enjoys traveling and leading tours to the Mediterranean region, gardening, and studying ancient and modern languages. He and his wife, Judith, are the parents of one son.