Smits was born in
Kevelaer in the
Duchy of Guelders. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of eighteen. As a religious, he devoted himself to the study of the Bible and biblical languages, eventually being appointed a lector. From 1732 to 1744, he published, at
Antwerp, several biblical theses dealing with questions of textual criticism and
chronology. In one of these, , he argues that the
Latin Vulgate is substantially a faithful translation of the original Hebrew; and in another, , that the
Septuagint is preferable to the actual Hebrew text. At the request of
Thomas Philip Wallrad de Hénin-Liétard d'Alsace, then
Archbishop of Mechelen, Smits undertook the translation of the entire Bible into
Dutch. The title is: Of this series he lived to finish only thirteen books, which were published, in seventeen volumes, from 1744 to 1767. The work was continued by his collaborator and former pupil,
Peter van Hove. In 1765, Smits was appointed the first prefect of the "Musaeum philologico-sacrum", a Franciscan biblical institute in
Antwerp. ==References==