Mark S. Smith
Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Princeton Theological Seminary
Mark S. Smith is Helena Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at Princeton Theological Seminary and Skirball Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University. He holds Masters degrees from the Catholic University of America, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale University, and his Ph.D. from Yale University. Professor Smith specializes in the study of Israelite divinity and religion, as well as the literatures of the Hebrew Bible and Late Bronze Ugarit.
He is the author of over one hundred articles and sixteen books, including The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (1990; second edition, 2002); The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus, with contributions by the archaeologist Elizabeth Bloch-Smith (1997); The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (2001); God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World (2008); Poetic Heroes: The Literary Commemoration of Warriors and Warrior Culture in the Early Biblical World (2014 ); How Human is God? Seven Questions about God and Humanity in the Bible (2014); and Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World (2016). His current research includes a commentary on the book of Judges co-authored with Elizabeth Bloch-Smith, which is to appear in the Hermeneia commentary series.
Selected Publications
The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (San Francisco/New York: Harper & Row, 1990; second paperback edition, The Biblical Resource Series; Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans; Dearborn, MI: Dove Booksellers, 2002).
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume 1. Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.1-1.2 (Vetus Testamentum Supplements series, volume 55; Leiden: Brill, 1994).
The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus, with contributions by Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith (Journal for the Society of Old Testament Supplement Series, volume 239; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997).
God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World (Forschungen zum Alten Testament series I, volume 57; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008; republished by Eerdmans in 2010).
The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2010).
Poetic Heroes: The Literary Commemoration of Warriors and Warrior Culture in the Early Biblical World (Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2014).