Matthew 3:12

Fan, floor (Wyc. has corn-floor) The picture is of a farmer at his threshing-floor, the area of hard-beaten earth on which the sheaves are spread and the grain trodden out by animals. His fan, that is his winnowing-shovel or fork, is in his hand, and with it he throws up the mingled wheat and chaff against the wind in order to separate the grain. Throughly cleanse (διακαθαριεῖ) Throughly (retained by Rev.) obsolete form of thoroughly, is the force of the preposition διά (through). In that preposition lies the picture of the farmer beginning at one side of the floor, and working through to the other, cleansing as he goes. The whole metaphor represents the Messiah as separating the evil from the good, according to the tests of his kingdom and Gospel, receiving the worthy into his kingdom and consigning the unworthy to destruction (compare Matthew 13:30, Matthew 13:39-43, Matthew 13:48-50).

12 . fan ] An instrument by which the corn after being threshed is thrown up against the wind to clear it of chaff. floor ] Here put for the contents of the threshing-floor, the mingled grain and chaff. St Matthew represents the picturesque side of John’s preaching, these verses are full of imagery. How many similes are compressed into his teaching! The vipers, the stones, the trees, the slave, the threshing-floor, are all used to illustrate his discourse. St Luke throws into prominence the great teacher’s keen discrimination of character. St John has recorded a fragment of the Baptist’s deeper teaching as to the nature and mission of the Son of God.

{6} Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly {m} purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (6) The triumphs of the wicked will end in everlasting torment. (m) Will clean it thoroughly, and make a full riddance.

Matthew 3:12 . Whose fan is in his hand — That is, the doctrine of the gospel, which is of such a nature as effectually discovers what is the real disposition of the hearts of men, and perfectly distinguishes between the hypocritical and the sincere. Perhaps, also, the Baptist might refer to the persecutions and tribulations which should attend the preaching of the gospel. Dr. Campbell renders the original expression, το πτυον , winnowing shovel, mentioned Isaiah 30:24 , “an implement of husbandry, very ancient, simple, and properly manual: whereas the fan, (or van, as it is sometimes called,) is more complex, and, being contrived for raising an artificial wind, by the help of sails, can hardly be considered as proper for being carried about in the hand.” “In the eastern countries,” says Dr. Shaw, “after the grain is trodden out, they winnow it by throwing it up against the wind with a shovel. ” “To understand the Baptist’s meaning aright, we should observe, that in this verse he describes the authority of Christ’s ministry, as in Matthew 3:16 he had described its efficacy. As if he had said, The Messiah is infinitely mightier than I, not only as he will bestow on you the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, but as he has power to reward those who obey him with eternal life, and to punish such with everlasting destruction, as reject him.” — Macknight. He will thoroughly purge his floor — His Church, at present covered with a mixture of wheat and chaff.

As if he had said, Though, for the present, the good and bad, the fruitful and unfruitful, are joined together in the visible Church, yet in due time he will sever them, Malachi 3:2-3 ; and rid his Church of all hypocrites and ungodly persons. And gather his wheat — The, truly pious, into his garner — Will lay them up in heaven as his peculiar treasure. But the chaff — Those who have only a show of religion, without the power, and produce not the fruits of righteousness, he will burn with unquenchable fire — He will treat them as men do the refuse of the floor. He will destroy them as worthless and unprofitable trash. There is, in these words, an evident allusion to the custom of burning the chaff after winnowing, that it might not, by the wind’s changing, be blown back again, and so be mingled with the wheat. And though this may in part refer to the calamities to come upon the Jewish nation for rejecting Christ, yet, it seems chiefly to intend the final destruction of all sinners in hell, which alone is properly opposed to the gathering the wheat into the garner. See Matthew 13:40-42 . And certainly this burning of the chaff with unquenchable fire, is absolutely inconsistent with all views of the restoration of the wicked, nor can it, by any easy or just interpretation, be reconciled with their annihilation, which, it is certain, no punishment of mind or body can, of itself, effect.

Matthew 3:12 . This ver. follows up Matthew 3:11 , and explains the judicial action emblemed by wind and fire.— οὗ τὸ πτύον ἐ . τ . χ . αὐτοῦ . The construction is variously understood. Grotius takes it as a Hebraism for ἐν οὗ χειρὶ τὸ πτύον . Fritzsche takes ἐν τ . χειρὶ αὐτοῦ as epexegetical, and renders: “whose will be the fan, viz. , in His hand”. Meyer and Weiss take οὗ as assigning a reason: “He ( αὐτὸς of Matthew 3:11 ) whose fan is in hand and who is therefore able to perform the part assigned to Him”. Then follows an explanation of the modus operandi .— διακαθαριεῖ from διακαθαρίζω , late for classic διακαθαίρω . The idea is: He with His fan will throw up the wheat, mixed with the chaff, that the wind may blow the chaff away; He will then collect the straw, ἄχυρον (in Greek writers usually plural τὰ ἄχυρα , vide Grimm), and burn it with fire, and collect the wheat lying on the threshing floor and store it in His granary. So shall He thoroughly ( δια intensifying) cleanse His floor. And the sweeping wind and the consuming fire are the emblems and measure of His power; stronger than mine, as the tempest and the devastating flames are mightier than the stream which I use as my element.— ἅλων , a place in a field made firm by a roller, or on a rocky hill top exposed to the breeze.— ἀποθήκη means generally any kind of store, and specially a grain store, often underground.

(12) Whose fan is in his hand. —The scene brought before us is that of the large hardened surface which was the “threshing-floor” of the East, the sheaves of corn thrown over it, the oxen treading on them, the large winnowing fan driving on them the full force of the strong current of air, leaving the wheat in the middle, while the chaff is driven to the outskirts of the field to be afterwards swept up and burnt. The metaphor was a sufficiently familiar one. (Comp. Job 21:18 ; Psalm 1:4 ; Psalm 35:5 ; Isaiah 17:13 ; Isaiah 29:5 ; Hosea 13:3 .) The new features here are (1) that the “coming One,” the expected Christ, is to be the agent in the process; (2) that the Old Testament imagery rests in the “scattering” of the chaff, and this passes on to the “burning”; (3) that the fire is said to be “unquenched,” or perhaps “unquenchable.” The interpretation of the parable lies on the surface. The chaff are the ungodly and evildoers. The unquenched fire is the wrath of God against evil, which is, in its very nature, eternal, and can only cease with the cessation or transformation of the evil. The word translated “chaff” includes, it may be noted, straw as well, all but the actual grain.

It seems right briefly to direct the reader’s thoughts here to what is recorded of the Baptist’s ministry in the other Gospels; the questions of the priests and Levites (John 1:19-25); the counsels given to publicans, soldiers, and others (Luke 3:10-14); the presence, among the crowd, of Galileans, some of whom were afterwards Apostles (John 1:35-42). A curious legendary addition, found in the Apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews, is worth noting, as preparing the way for what follows: “Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said unto Him, ‘John the Baptist baptiseth for the remission of sins; let us go that we may be baptised by him.’ But He said unto them, ‘In what have I sinned that I should go and be baptised by him? unless, perhaps, even that which I have thus spoken be a sin of ignorance.’ “This was obviously an attempt to explain the difficulty of the Sinless One seeking a baptism of repentance. It was, of course, probable enough that the household of Nazareth, cherishing, as they did, hopes of the kingdom of heaven, should be drawn with other Galileans to the Baptist’s preaching.

12. Whose fan—winnowing fan. is in his hand—ready for use. This is no other than the preaching of the Gospel, even now beginning, the effect of which would be to separate the solid from the spiritually worthless, as wheat, by the winnowing fan, from the chaff. (Compare the similar representation in Mal 3:1-3). and he will throughly purge his floor—threshing-floor; that is, the visible Church. and gather his wheat—His true-hearted saints; so called for their solid worth (compare Am 9:9; Lu 22:31). into the garner—"the kingdom of their Father," as this "garner" or "barn" is beautifully explained by our Lord in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Mt 13:30, 43). but he will burn up the chaff—empty, worthless professors of religion, void of all solid religious principle and character (see Ps 1:4). with unquenchable fire—Singular is the strength of this apparent contradiction of figures:—to be burnt up, but with a fire that is unquenchable; the one expressing the utter destruction of all that constitutes one's true life, the other the continued consciousness of existence in that awful condition. Luke adds the following important particulars (Lu 3:18-20): Lu 3:18: And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people—showing that we have here but an abstract of his teaching.

Besides what we read in Joh 1:29, 33, 34; 3:27-36, the incidental allusion to his having taught his disciples to pray (Lu 11:1)—of which not a word is said elsewhere—shows how varied his teaching was. Lu 3:19: But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done—In this last clause we have an important fact, here only mentioned, showing how thoroughgoing was the fidelity of the Baptist to his royal hearer, and how strong must have been the workings of conscience in that slave of passion when, notwithstanding such plainness, he "did many things, and heard John gladly" (Mr 6:20). Lu 3:20: Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison—This imprisonment of John, however, did not take place for some time after this; and it is here recorded merely because the Evangelist did not intend to recur to his history till he had occasion to relate the message which he sent to Christ from his prison at Machærus (Lu 7:18, &c.).

Matthew 3:12 . οὖ , whose ) This, and Αὐτοῦ , His , being placed emphatically thrice, shows the power of Christ. οὗ — αὐτοῦ is a Hebraism.— τὸ πτύον , the fan) i.e. the Gospel.— ἐν τῇ χειρὶ Αὐτοῦ , in His hand ) even now. The whole of John’s harangue, and therefore the commencement of the Gospel, agrees entirely with the last clause of Old Testament prophecy, in Mal. 3:19–24, where the connection of things from Moses to the conclusion of ancient prophecy, and thence to Christ’s forerunner and Christ Himself, and the day of His universal judgment, is exquisitely and solemnly declared.— Αὐτοῦ , His ) Neither His forerunner, nor any of His apostles, had this fan in the same manner as the Lord Jesus Himself. The consolation of His ministers in then weakness is, “The Lord will do it.” Their wrath, though void of strength, is not vain.— τὴν ἅλωνα Αὐτοῦ , His threshing-floor ) The wayfarers are in the threshing-floor, the conquerors in the garner.[129]— Αὐτοῦ , His ) See Hebrews 3:6 .— καὶ συνάξει τὸν σῖτον Αὐτοῦ εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην , and will gather His wheat into the garner ) Αὐτου , His , must either be omitted or construed with ἀποθήκην , garner; [130] cf. Matthew 13:30 , τὸν δὲ σῖτον συναγάγετε εἰς τὴν ἀποθήκην Μου , but gather the wheat into My garner . The Same is Lord of the wheat as of the garner: the Same of the garner as of the threshing-floor .