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.[citation needed]
Smith was the chair of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at
New York University, and then came to be professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis at
Princeton Theological Seminary.[1]
Smith made many contributions to the study of the Hebrew Bible and
Northwest Semitic texts as well as
Ugaritic literature and religion.[2][3] Among his most notable publications are The Early History of God, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, and his translation of the
Baal Cycle (The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Vols. 1–2).
Personal life
Smith has been married since 1983 to the archaeologist Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith, author of Judahite Burials and Beliefs about the Dead. They have three children named Benjamin, Rachel, and Shulamit.[citation needed] Smith is a
Roman Catholic.[4]
Fellowships and honors
Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, New York University, 2007
Frank Moore Cross Publications Award, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005
Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, New York University, 2001
Fellow, Center for Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1998
Faculty Merit Award for Research, Saint Joseph's University, 1995
Morse Fellow, Yale University, 1993
Dorot Dead Sea Scrolls Fellow (summer), W. F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research, 1990
Mellon Faculty Fellowship Leave (spring term), Yale University 1989
Recipient of the Mitchell Dahood Memorial Prize 1988, 1990
Post-doctoral fellow W. F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research, 1988
Annual Professor, W. F. Albright Institute of Archeological Research, 1987
Mary Cady Tew prize for best first-year graduate student, Yale University, 1982
Additional positions
Member, Catholic Biblical Association of America, Society of Biblical Literature, Colloquium for Biblical Research, Old Testament Colloquium, and Association for Jewish Studies
Chairperson, Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
Co-editor, Forschungen zum Alten Testament Series, published by Mohr Siebeck
Publications
Books
Psalms: The Divine Journey. New York, NY; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 1987.
ISBN978-0-8091-2897-6.
The Laments of Jeremiah and Their Context: A Literarv and Redactional Study of Jeremiah 11–20. Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series. Vol. 42. Atlanta, GA: Scholars. 1990.
ISBN978-1-5554-0461-1.
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume 1. Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.1–1.2. Vetus Testamentum Supplements series. Vol. 55. Leiden, South Holland: Brill. 1994.
ISBN978-9-0041-5348-6.
Smith, Mark S. (1997). The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus. Journal for the Society of Old Testament Supplement Series. Vol. 239. contributions by Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
ISBN978-1-8507-5652-1.
The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts. New York, NY; Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 2000.
ISBN978-0-1951-6768-9.
Untold Stories: The Bible and Ugaritic Studies in the Twentieth Century. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. 2001.
ISBN978-1-5656-3575-3.
The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of the Divine. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. 2004.
ISBN978-0-8006-3485-8.
The Rituals and Myths of the Feast of the Goodly Gods of KTU/CAT 1.23: Royal Constructions of Opposition, Intersection, Integration, and Domination. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature. 2006.
ISBN978-1-5898-3203-9.
God in Translation: Deities in Cross-cultural Discourse in the Biblical World. Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2008.
ISBN978-3-1614-9543-4.
Smith, Mark S., ed. (2009). The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume 2. Introduction with Text, Translation and Commentary of KTU 1.3–1.4. Vetus Testament Supplement series. Vol. 114. Leiden, South Holland: Brill.
ISBN978-9-0040-9995-1.
Exodus. The New Collegeville Bible Commentary. Vol. 3. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. 2009.
ISBN978-0-8146-2837-9.
Michael D. Coogan, ed. (2009). Stories From Ancient Canaan (Second revised and expanded ed.). Louisville, KY: Westminster, John Knox Press.
ISBN978-0-6642-3242-9.
How Human Is God?: Seven Questions about God and Humanity in the Bible. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press. 2014.
ISBN978-0-8146-3759-3.