Mark S. Smith - Early Career

Early Career

Smith began his university studies at The 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 many works on Ugaritic and biblical religion, including two major 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.