Noel B. Reynolds was born in 1942. After earning a Ph.D. in the Department of Government at Harvard University in 1971, Noel B. Reynolds accepted a position at Brigham Young University in the political science department. His honors and positions held include the chair of the Department of Philosophy, the Honors Program Professor of the Year, the associate academic vice president, the director of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), and the executive director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Reynolds has also served as a visiting faculty member at Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, and BYU's Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.

Noel B. Reynolds has completed significant research and work on subjects ranging from Plato's political theory, constitutionalism and the rule of law, to authorship studies, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Book of Mormon.

In the Church, Reynolds has served as a missionary, bishop, a stake president, and a mission president. He is married to Sydney Smith Reynolds, the first counselor in the general Primary presidency from 1999 to 2005, and they have eleven children.