Joel Judd was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and grew up in West Point, Utah before graduating from Davis High School. He served an LDS mission to New England under President Truman G. Madsen.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in History, Sociology and Psychology at Weber State College in 1970, and received a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology from BYU in 1975. Since that time he has been a student of Biblical Hebrew, ancient Near East History, and Geography of the Holy Land.

Joel, now retired, taught in the L. D. S. Church Education System for 37 years, in Seminary in Ogden, Utah and in Institute in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and at the Orem Institute of Religion at Utah Valley State College. He has taught at the BYU Jerusalem Center in Israel on three different occasions as a religion instructor and field trip director and has directed many tours to Egypt and Israel.