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Mark S. Smith

Skirball Professor of Bible; Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
Ph.D., 1985, (Northwest Semitics and Hebrew Scripture), Yale University; M. Phil., 1983, M.A. 1982. M.T.S., 1980, (Old Testament), Harvard Divinity School; M.A., 1979, the Catholic University of America; B.A., 1975, The Johns Hopkins University.

Office Address: Heyman Hall 51 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012-1075
Phone: 212-998-8975
Fax: 212-995-4178
Email:

Areas of Research/Interest: History of Israelite and ancient Near Eastern religion; The representation of deities and divinity in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East from the Bronze Age to the Greco-Roman period; Narrative literature of the Hebrew Bible and West Semitic texts; Ugaritic literature and religion

External Affiliations: Member, Colloquium for Biblical Research; Member, Society of Biblical Literature; Member, Catholic Biblical Association; Member, Colloquium for Biblical Research; Member, Old Testament Colloquium; Member, Association for Jewish Studies; Editor, Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series; Editorial Board, Hebrew Studies

Fellowships/Honors: Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, New York University, 2005 and 2007; Frank Moore Cross Publications Award, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2005; 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; Membership in and papers delivered at the Catholic Biblical Association, the Old Testament Colloquium and the Society of Biblical Literature, 1983-present; Mary Cady Tew prize for best first-year graduate student, Yale University, 1982

Select Publications:

Psalms: The Divine Journey
(New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987).

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  Laments of Jeremiah and Their Context: A Literary and Redactional Study of Jeremiah 11-20
(Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series, volume 42; Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1990).

The  Origins and Development of the Waw-Consecutive: Northwest Semitic Evidence from Ugarit to Qumran
(Harvard Semitic Studies Series, volume 39; Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1991).

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).

Co-authored with Magen Broshi et al., Qumran Cave 4 XIV: Parabiblical Texts, Part 2
(in consultation with James VanderKam; Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Volume XIX; Oxford: Clarendon, 1995).  My work compromises the editio princeps for 4Q384: 4QpapApocryphal-Jeremiah (?), 4Q391: 4Q papPseudo-Ezekiele, 4Q462 (Narrative), and 4Q463 (Narrative).

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).

The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts
(Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; paperback edition, 2003).

Untold Stories: The Bible and Ugaritic Studies in the Twentieth Century
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001).

The Memoirs of God: History, Memory, and the Experience of God in Ancient Israel
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).  Portuguese edition: O memorial de Deus: História, memória e a experiência do divino no Antigo Israel (trans. Luiz Alexandre Solano Rossi; Biblioteca de Estudos Bíblicos; Sao Paulo, Brazil: Paulus Editora, 2006).

The Sacrificial Rituals and Myths of the Goodly Gods, KTU/CAT 1.23: Royal Constructions of Opposition, Intersection, Integration and Domination
(Society of Biblical Literature Resources for Biblical Studies series, volume 51; Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2006).

God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World
(Forschungen zum Alten Testament series I, volume 57; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008).

The Ugaritic Baal Cycle: Volume 2. Introduction with Text, Translation and  Commentary of KTU 1.3-1.4
(Vetus Testament Supplement series, volume 114; Leiden: Brill, in press). Co-authored with Wayne Pitard.

Exodus 
(Fascicle 2, Old Testament, The New Collegeville Bible Commentary series; Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, in press; to appear in 2009).

Co-authored with Michael D. Coogan, Stories From Ancient Canaan
(second revised and expanded edition; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, under contract, to be submitted in January 2009).

The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, under contract, to be submitted in June, 2009).