James A. Montgomery was Professor in the University of Pennsylvania and in the Philadelphia Divinity School. He earned his Ph. D., in 1904 from the University of Pennsylvania, and was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) in 1908. Montgomery was named Lecturer on Semitics at Penn, and then one year later, Assistant Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic. In 1914, he was promoted to Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic, a position he held until he was named Emeritus Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in 1938. Through his distinguished academic career, Montgomery made a name for himself in the fields of Semitics and Oriental Studies. He authored a number of books on the Orient and the Middle-East, and his works were considered by scholars in the field to be the most complete and well-researched publications on that subject.