J. M. Powis Smith | |
|---|---|
.jpg) J. M. P. Smith | |
| Born | 28 December 1866 (1866-12-28) London, England |
| Died | 26 September 1932(1932-09-26) (aged 65) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Oriental studies Old Testament |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
John Merlin Powis Smith (28 December 1866 – November 1932) was an English-born, Americanorientalist and biblical scholar.
Smith was born inLondon, son of William Martin and Anne Powis Smith. He was orphaned at age five and thereafter raised by his aunt inHerefordshire andDevonshire. After finishing school, Smith passed an examination for entrance toCambridge, but was unable to secure funding for his studies and migrated to America in 1883.
Having migrated to America, Smith lived on the farm of an uncle inDenison, Iowa.[1] In 1890 he became aBaptist. While attending college inIowa, Smith also taught introductory Greek, and after earning hisBachelor of Arts degree in 1893, taught Greek atCedar Valley Seminary inOsage, Iowa. He enrolled as a graduate student at theUniversity of Chicago in 1894. During his time at theDivinity School he studiedHebrew,Biblical Aramaic,Syriac,Arabic,Akkadian andSumerian. Smith completed his doctoral dissertation on "The History of the Idea of the Day of Yahweh" in 1899.
Smith was then singled out for the Department of Semitic Languages by the president of the university and fellow orientalist,William Rainey Harper, with whom a close professional and personal relationship developed as Smith served as Harper's literary secretary and assisted him with theInternational Critical Commentary on theMinor Prophets (editorship of the second and third volumes of which would fall to Smith after Harper's death).[2] Smith went on to become instructor in 1905, assistant professor in 1908, associate professor in 1912 and then, in 1915, full professor of Old Testament language and literature. NeitherChicago Theological Seminary norMeadville Theological School made provisions for their own professors of Old Testament, as they were more than content to rely upon the excellent teaching provided by Smith.[3]
Smith also served as an editorial secretary of theBiblical World and was made the editor of theAmerican Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures in 1915. Smith played a major role in the renamed Department of Oriental Languages, seeing its transition from being concerned almost exclusively with philology to also include the historical aspect ofOriental studies. Smith thereby laid the foundations, along withJames Henry Breasted, for the formation of theOriental Institute at the University of Chicago.[4]
In 1927, Smith was appointed annual professor at theAmerican School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. Smith andEdgar J. Goodspeed were first graduate students together, then colleagues at the University of Chicago, and the two served together on the American Standard Bible Committee charged with the revision of theAmerican Standard Version (ASV). Smith was also the editor of the translation of theOld Testament that accompanied Goodspeed's translations of thedeuterocanonical books and theNew Testament inThe Bible: An American Translation, which was published after Smith's death. Smith was an honorary member of the Oxford Society for Old Testament Study and, at his death, was president of theSociety of Biblical Literature and Exegesis.
On 19 September 1899, Smith married Catherine McKlveen inChariton, Iowa. Smith also served as a deacon at Hyde Park Baptist Church.
