John Merlin Powis Smith

Who was John Merlin Powis Smith?

John Merlin Powis Smith was an English-born, American orientalist and biblical scholar.

Smith was born in London, son of William Martin and Anne Powis Smith. He was orphaned at age five and thereafter raised by his aunt in Herefordshire and Devonshire. After finishing school, Smith passed an examination for entrance to Cambridge, 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 in Denison, Iowa. In 1890 he became a Baptist. While attending college in Iowa, Smith also taught introductory Greek, and after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893, taught Greek at Cedar Valley Seminary in Osage, Iowa. He enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1894. During his time at the Divinity School he studied Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, Akkadian and Sumerian. 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 the International Critical Commentary on the Minor Prophets. 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. Neither Chicago Theological Seminary nor Meadville 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.