Ian Theodor Beelen


Ian Theodor Beelen was a Dutch exegete and orientalist.

Life

After a course of studies at Rome, crowned by the Doctorate of Theology, he was in 1836 appointed Professor of Sacred Scripture and Oriental languages in the recently reorganized Catholic University of Leuven. This position he held till 1876, when he resigned his place to his pupil, T. J. Lamy.
Beelen revived Oriental studies in Belgium, and introduced into that country Oriental printing by means of a complete font of Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic type, which he purchased. In recognition of his merits as a scholar he was made domestic prelate of the pope, consultor of the Congregation of the Index, honorary canon of Liège, and Knight of the Order of Leopold.

Works

He was the author of the following Biblical works, among which his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is especially esteemed:
and in Dutch,
He also published two works in the field of Oriental scholarship: