Matthew 12:28

ἐν πνεύματι θεοῦ. ἐν δακτύλῳ θεοῦ (Luke).

ἔφθασεν ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς. ‘Came upon you,’ surprised you; aorist of immediate past. φθάνειν, from its classical force of ‘anticipating,’ or ‘coming before others,’ passes to that of simply coming and arriving at a place. This was indeed probably the original meaning of the word (Geldart, Mod. Greek, p. 206). It is also the modern meaning; προφθάνειν being used in the sense of ‘to anticipate.’ But in such a phrase as ἔφθασα τὸ�, ‘I caught the steamer,’ a trace of the prevailing classical use is discerned. Both senses are found in N.T. For the first, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, οὐ μὴ φθάσωμεν τοὺς κοιμηθέντας, for the second, Romans 9:31, Ἰσραὴλ δὲ διώκων νόμον δικαιοσύνης εἰς νόμον οὐκ ἔφθασεν. In 2 Corinthians 10:14, φθάνειν is synonymous with ἐφικνεῖσθαι.