Matthew 3:12 - Exposition

Whose fan . The pronged winnowing-fork which throws up the grain against the wind. The Coming One is to put an end to the present mixture of chaff and corn. He will thoroughly purge the threshing-floor of this world, gathering the good into one safe place, and destroying the evil. The figure of winnowing comes not unseldom in the Old Testament (e.g. Jeremiah 15:7 ; Jeremiah 51:2 ), but generally with the sole idea of destruction of the ungodly, not with that of separating so as to also preserve the godly. Is in his hand . The figure is stronger than that in Matthew 3:10 , where the instrument was only lying ready to be taken up. But that was an instrument of destruction alone. And he will throughly purge ; cleanse (Revised Version); permundo (Vulgate); διακαθαριεῖ , the preposition is intensive, not local. His . Observe the threefold αὐτοῦ , referring to hand, flour, corn—personal agency, sphere, ownership. In the Vatican and some other manuscripts it is found also after "garner;" but this is, perhaps, introduced from the parallel in Luke. Floor ; threshing-floor (Revised Version). Not the barn that English-men think of, but an open and level space (for the figure, cf. especially Micah 4:12 ). Here the threshing-floor is equivalent to the scene of the Lord's operations, i.e. the world, or rather the universe (cf. Epbraem (? Tartan) in Resch, 'Agrapha,' p. 295). The present mixture of good and evil shall be brought to an end. And gather together, from different parts of the threshing-floor, or from intimate association with the chaff, into one heap. All true believers shall finally be brought to perfect unity (cf. Matthew 13:30 ). His wheat . The term is adopted by Ignatius ('Ram.,' §4): "I am the wheat of God, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found pure bread [of Christ]." Into the garner . The final home of the saints, hidden away and safe from all marauders. Garners in the East are generally subterranean vaults or eaves (but cf. Luke 12:18 ). But will burn up . Utterly consuming it (contrast Exodus 3:2 ), as the tares ( Matthew 13:30 , Matthew 13:40 ) and the books of magic ( Acts 19:19 ). The chaff . For, as Jeremiah says ( Jeremiah 23:28 ) when comparing a mere dream with a message from the Lord," What is the chaff to the wheat?" The Targum even interprets Jeremiah's words of the wicked and the righteous. The chaff in Jeremiah includes the straw, for in the East everything except the actual grain is generally burnt, and is sometimes used for heating fireplaces (Mishna, 'Sabb.,' 3.1; 'Parah,' Jeremiah 4:3 ). With unquenchable fire . "Unquenchable" shows that John is here thinking not of the figure of chaff but of the persons figured by it. But what does the word mean? In itself it might mean that the fire cannot be overcome by the greatness or the nature of the mass that it has to consume; i.e. , to drop the figure, by either the number or the character at' the wicked. But from its usage it seems rather to be equivalent to not being overcome by the lapse of time. It is used, e.g. , of the perpetual fire of Vesta, of the fire of the Magi, of the fire upon the Jewish altar ( vide references in Thayer). The whole expression in itself says nothing about the everlasting duration of the punishment; i.e. it does not decide for "everlasting punishment" or for "annihilation," but seems rather to exclude the possibility of amelioration under it (cf. Isaiah 1:31 ).