REINKE, LAURENTIUS. - Catholic exegete, b. 6 Feb. 1797 in Langförden (Germany), d. at Münster in Westphalia on 4 June 1879. Ordained a priest (1822), he devoted himself with zeal to the study of the Semitic languages, being at Bonn a disciple of G. W. Freytag, author of the Lexicon Arabico-Latinum. From 1827 a private lecturer in Oriental languages and a tutor in exegesis of the Old Testament, he became a professor at the University of Bonn, extraordinary in 1831, ordinary in 1837; he held the chair until his death.
Pious and zealous for the honor of Catholic science, he spent his life between study and prayer. Grieved by the situation of exegesis "devastated" by rationalism and by the lack of Catholic works scientifically equal to the rationalist ones, after his 50th year of life he devoted himself to the publication of works of scientific exegesis, contributing his savings to the printing costs. Of a rather philological and textual-critical method, his works still retain their value today, for many sound observations and fine philology, amid others that are antiquated, and for the accurate analysis of the works of so many of his adversaries. His preferred subject was the messianism of the Old Testament, which found in him a valiant defender. He published: Exegesis critica in Is. 52,13-53,18 (Münster 1836); Exegesis critica in Is. 2,2-4 (ibid. 1838); Beiträge zur Erklärung des Alten Testamentes (47 monographs on the more difficult and disputed biblical passages: vols. I-VII, ibid. 1851-66; vol. VIII, Giessen 1872). In addition, commentaries on Malachi (1856), Messianic Psalms (2 vols., 1856-57), Messianic Prophecies in the Books of the Prophets (4 vols., 1859-62), Haggai (1868), Zephaniah (1868), Habakkuk (1870), Micah (1871).
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