Laudator Temporis Acti

Frederick William Danker, "Lexical Evolution and Linguistic Hazard," in Biblical Greek Language and Lexicography: Essays in Honor of Frederick W. Danker (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), pp. 1-31 (at 20):

Besides, if one may digress, it is well to hear the question addressed to a class by the eminent biblical critic and Hebraist Ferdinand Hitzi, "Have you a Septuagint?" One also does well to stay for Hitzig's own answer: "If not, sell all you have and buy one."

The source seems to be J.J. Kneucker, "Zur Erinnerung an Ferdinand Hitzig," in Ferdinand Hitzig, Vorlesungen ueber biblische Theologie und messianische Weissagungen des Alten Testaments (Karlsruhe: H. Reuther, 1880), pp. 1-35 (at p. 19, n. 2):

Welchen Werth Hitzig in dieser Beziehung den LXX schon für Studirende und ihre exegetischen Uebungen beilegte, geht aus der scherzhaften Aeusserung hervor, mit welcher er die alttestamentlichen Interpretirübungen im theologischen Seminar zu Heidelberg zu eröffnen pflegte: „Meine Herren, haben Sie eine Septuaginta? wenn nicht, so verkaufen Sie Alles, was Sie haben, und kaufen sich eine Septuaginta!“

Hitzig was of course alluding to Mark 10.21:

Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

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