Fredric Brand­fon went to Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty and received a Doc­tor­ate in His­to­ry of Reli­gions from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia. He also has a UCLA law degree. From 1973 – 1988 he was an archae­ol­o­gist exca­vat­ing in Israel. After receiv­ing a Mel­lon Grant to study Phi­los­o­phy of His­to­ry, he taught at Cen­tral Michi­gan Uni­ver­si­ty, Stock­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Col­lege of Charleston.