Mark S. Smith

Mark S. Smith
Born (1956-12-06) December 6, 1956
Paris, France
Nationality American
Occupation professor and biblical scholar
Known for the study of the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic texts
Title Skirball Chair of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University
Board member of Chairperson, Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
Spouse(s) Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith (nee Bloch)
Children Benjamin, Rachel and Shulamit
Academic background
Education Johns Hopkins University, Catholic University of America, Harvard Divinity School
Alma mater Yale University (Ph.D.)
Thesis title Kothar wa-Hasis, the Ugaritic Craftsman God
Thesis year 1985
Doctoral advisor Marvin H. Pope
Academic work
Institutions New York University

Mark Stratton John Matthew Smith (born December 6, 1956) is an American professor and biblical scholar who currently holds the Skirball Chair of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

Early life

Born in Paris to Donald Eugene Smith and Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Reichert, Smith grew up in Washington, D.C. with his six sisters and two brothers. For elementary school, he attended Blessed Sacrament School. For grades 7–12, he went to St. Anselm's Abbey School.

Early career

Smith began his university studies at Johns Hopkins University receiving his B.A. in English in 1976. He received his Masters in theology at Catholic University of America in 1978. His studies included courses with Patrick Skehan, Joseph Fitzmyer, and Aloysius Fitzgerald. He received a Masters of Theological Studies, concentrating in biblical studies, at Harvard Divinity School, in 1981. At Harvard, Smith studied with Frank Moore Cross, Thomas Lambdin, William Moran, Michael D. Coogan, Paul Hanson, Dieter Georgi and George MacRae. Primarily studying West Semitic languages and literatures, including Hebrew Bible, Smith took an M.A. (1982), M.Phil. (1983), and Ph.D. (1985) in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Yale University. His advisor and director of his dissertation on Kothar wa-Hasis, the Ugaritic Craftsman God, was Marvin H. Pope, author of works on Ugaritic and biblical religion, including two commentaries in the Anchor Bible series on the Song of Songs and Job. At Yale, Smith also studied with Franz Rosenthal, Brevard Childs, Robert R. Wilson, and W. W. Hallo. While writing his dissertation, he studied at the Hebrew University for a year (1984–1985) under Jonas C. Greenfield.

Later career

After graduate school, Smith focused on the history of Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion. He also began to explore the representation of deities and divinity in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East from the Bronze Age to the Greco-Roman period. For several summers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he also studied Dead Sea Scrolls with John Strugnell at the Ecole Biblique. This work issued in the publications of four manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Smith's contributions to the study of the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic texts as well as Ugaritic literature and religion are in refs.[1][2]

Smith has been married since 1983 to the archaeologist Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith, author of Judahite Burials and Beliefs about the Dead. They are the parents of Benjamin, Rachel and Shulamit.

Fellowships and honors

Additional positions

Publications

Books

Chapters and Articles

References

External links

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