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Mat_12:28. Previously it was ἐγώ that was emphatic in the antecedent clause; but here it is ἐν πνεύματι θεοῦ : but if it is by THE POWER OF GOD’S SPIRIT that I, on the other hand, cast out the demons, then it follows that the KINGDOM OF GOD has come to you; in the consequent clause (the apodosis) the emphasis is on the words: the kingdom of God has come, etc. The reasoning is founded on the axiom, that such deeds, wrought as they are by the power of God’s Spirit, go to prove that He who performs them is no other than He who brings in the kingdom—the Messiah. Where the Messiah is present and working, there, too, is the kingdom; not yet, of course, as completely.established, but preparing to become so through its preliminary development in the world. See on Luk_17:20 f. For φθάνειν (used by classical writers as meaning to anticipate, 1Th_4:15), in the simple sense of to reach, arrive at, see on Php_3:16; Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 356; Lünemann’s note on 1Th_2:16.
Notice, in the form of the reasoning in Mat_12:27-28, the real dilemma (tertium non datur): εἰ δέ , etc.