David Lim wrote:Byz wrote:η γαρ υμων υπακοη εις παντας αφικετο χαιρω ουν το εφ υμιν θελω δε υμας σοφους μεν ειναι εις το αγαθον ακεραιους δε εις το κακον
WHNU wrote:η γαρ υμων υπακοη εις παντας αφικετο εφ υμιν ουν χαιρω θελω δε υμας σοφους ειναι εις το αγαθον ακεραιους δε εις το κακον
I cannot understand what the neuter article is doing in front of the prepositional clause in the Byzantine text. It is not there in the NA/UBS text. Does "χαιρω το εφ υμιν" mean something like "I rejoice the [rejoicing] over you", or is it simply equivalent to "χαιρω εφ υμιν" = "I rejoice over you", or is it a grammatical anomaly?
I really don't have time to flesh this out right now, but first, I'll cite a section from the very lengthy article in BDAG that I think is relevant to the question:
e. The art. is used w. prepositional expressions (Artem. 4, 33 p. 224, 7 ὁ ἐν Περγάμῳ; 4, 36 ὁ ἐν Μαγνησίᾳ; 4 [6] Esdr [POxy 1010 recto, 8–12] οἱ ἐν τοῖς πεδίοις . . . οἱ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ μετεώροις; Tat. 31, 2 οἱ μὲν περὶ Κράτητα . . . οἱ δὲ περὶ Ἐρατοσθένη) τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Κεγχρεαῖς Ro 16:1. ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις ταῖς ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ Rv 1:4. τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐν (w. place name) ἐκκλησίας 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14 (on these pass. RBorger, TRu 52, ’87, 42–45). τοῖς ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ to those in the house Mt 5:15. πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τ. οὐρανοῖς 6:9. οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰταλίας Hb 13:24. οἱ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ Ro 8:1. οἱ ἐξ ἐριθείας 2:8. οἱ ἐκ νόμου 4:14; cp. vs. 16. οἱ ἐκ τῆς Καίσαρος οἰκίας Phil 4:22. οἱ ἐξ εὐωνύμων Mt 25:41. τὸ θυσιαστήριον . . . τὸ ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου Rv 8:3; cp. 9:13. On 1:4 s. ref in B-D-F §136, 1 to restoration by Nestle. οἱ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ Mk 3:21. οἱ μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ Mt 12:3. οἱ περὶ αὐτόν Mk 4:10; Lk 22:49 al.—Neut. τὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ πλοίου pieces of wreckage fr. the ship Ac 27:44 (difft. FZorell, BZ 9, 1911, 159f). τὰ περί τινος Lk 24:19, 27; Ac 24:10; Phil 1:27 (Tat. 32, 2 τὰ περὶ θεοῦ). τὰ περί τινα 2:23. τὰ κατ᾿ ἐμέ my circumstances Eph 6:21; Phil 1:12; Col 4:7. τὰ κατὰ τὸν νόμον what (was to be done) according to the law Lk 2:39. τὸ ἐξ ὑμῶν Ro 12:18. τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεόν 15:17; Hb 2:17; 5:1 (X., Resp. Lac. 13, 11 ἱερεῖ τὰ πρὸς τοὺς θεούς, στρατηγῷ δὲ τὰ πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους). τὰ παρ᾿ αὐτῶν Lk 10:7. τὸ ἐν ἐμοί the (child) in me GJs 12:2 al.
Note particularly toward the end of the section such phrases as τὸ ἐν ἐμοί or τὸ ἐξ ὑμῶν. It has been my observation that substantivized prepositional phrases functioning as adverbial expressions tend to appear not infrequently in Hellenistic prose -- in Koine -- without any real difference in meaning from what the prepositional phrase would have meant in the first place. I think that, if we can say that χαίρω ἐφ’ ὑμῖν means "I rejoice over you", the sense of χαίρω τὸ ἐφ’ ὑμῖν means something like, "I rejoice with respect to what relates to you." That is to say, the neuter article substantivizes the prepositional phrase, and then the substantivized expression is understood as an adverbial accusative. It seems sort of silly, I know, but it seems to be the sort of thing that happens in colloquial expressions, e.g. "Hey, that business of what happened last night -- you know? --I'm glad about it." Here it's something like, "the matter of what concerns you -- I'm glad about that."
Of course, it's worth noting that most recent editors have preferred the simpler ἐφ’ ὐμῖν over the substantivized τὸ ἐφ’ ὑμῖν. But those substantivized prepositional phrases certainly do appear in Hellenistic Greek.