The Meaning of Matthew 3:12 Explained

Matthew 3:12

KJV: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

YLT: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and will gather his wheat to the storehouse, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.'

Darby: whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

ASV: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Whose  fan  [is] in  his  hand,  and  he will throughly purge  his  floor,  and  gather  his  wheat  into  the garner;  but  he will burn up  the chaff  with unquenchable  fire. 

What does Matthew 3:12 Mean?

Verse Meaning

John metaphorically described God separating the true and the false, the repentant and the unrepentant, in a future judgment. This thorough judgment will result in the preservation of the believing Israelites and the destruction of the unbelieving (cf. Matthew 25:31-46). The barn probably refers to the kingdom and the "unquenchable fire" to the endless duration and the agonizing nature of this punishment.
""Unquenchable fire" is not just metaphor: fearful reality underlies Messiah"s separation of grain from chaff. The "nearness" of the kingdom therefore calls for repentance ( Matthew 3:2)." [1]
What then was the essential message of Messiah"s forerunner?
"John preached both a personal salvation, involving the remission of sins ( Mark 1:4), and a national salvation, involving the establishment of the millennial kingdom with Israel delivered out of the hand of their enemies ( Matthew 3:2; Luke 1:71-75)." [2]
2. Jesus" baptism3:13-17 (cf. Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-23)
Jesus" baptism was the occasion at which His messiahship became obvious publicly. Matthew recorded this event as he did to convince his readers further of Jesus" messianic qualifications. Thus John"s baptism had two purposes: to prepare Israel for her Messiah ( Matthew 3:1-12) and to prepare the Messiah for Israel ( Matthew 3:13-17; cf. John 1:31).

Context Summary

Matthew 3:1-12 - The Herald Prepares The Way
Matthew's Gospel heralds the Kingdom. We are allowed to see and listen to the forerunner, whose voice again awoke the hearts of men with prophetic utterance after a silence of four hundred years. He leaps into the arena with the suddenness of Elijah.
His message was twofold-the need for repentance and the announcement of the nearness of the Kingdom; it thrilled his generation with a strange wonder and interest. All of the southern part of the country seemed to empty itself into the Jordan valley. Yes, if a man is not a reed shaken by the wind, not effeminate in court dress, not a copy but an original, who speaks what he sees and knows of God, men will come to Him in every age.
To us also John the Baptist must come, if we shall properly appreciate the Redeemer. We must expose ourselves to the fire, the ax, the winnowing-fan, that we may learn what we really are and come, like Paul, to reckon our own righteousness as loss, if only we may win Christ and be found in Him. [source]

Chapter Summary: Matthew 3

1  John preaches: his office, life, and baptism
7  He reprimands the Pharisees,
13  and baptizes Jesus in Jordan

Greek Commentary for Matthew 3:12

Will burn up with unquenchable fire [κατακαυσει πυρι ασβεστωι]
Note perfective use of κατα — kata The threshing floor, the fan, the wheat, the garner, the chaff He will sweep from side to side to make it clean. [source]
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). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

Fan, floor [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. Hisfan, that is his winnowing-shovel orfork, is in his hand, and with it he throws up the mingled wheat and chaff against the wind in order to separate the grain. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Matthew 3:12

Matthew 13:30 My barn [την αποτηκην μου]
See already Matthew 3:12; Matthew 6:26. Granary, storehouse, place for putting things away. [source]
Luke 3:17 Fan - floor - purge []
See on Matthew 3:12. [source]
Luke 12:18 My barns [μου τας αποτηκας]
From αποτιτημι — apotithēmi to lay by, to treasure. So a granary or storehouse, an old word, six times in the N.T. (Matthew 3:12; Matthew 6:26; Matthew 13:30; Luke 3:17; Luke 12:18, Luke 12:24).All my corn (παντα τον σιτον — panta ton siton). Better grain (wheat, barley), not maize or Indian corn.My goods Like the English, my good things. So the English speak of goods (freight) train. [source]
Luke 3:16 He that is mightier than I [ο ισχυροτερος μου]
Like Mark 1:7, “the one mightier than I.” Ablative case Compare Luke 3:16 with Mark 1:7. and Matthew 3:11. for discussion of details. Luke has “fire” here after “baptize with the Holy Ghost” as Matthew 3:11, which see note. This bold Messianic picture in the Synoptic Gospels shows that John saw the Messiah‘s coming as a judgment upon the world like fire and the fan of the thrashing-floor, and with unquenchable fire for the chaff (Luke 3:17; Matthew 3:12). But he had the spiritual conception also, the baptism in the Holy Spirit which will characterize the Messiah‘s Mission and so will far transcend the water baptism which marked the ministry of John. [source]
1 Corinthians 3:13 It is revealed in fire [εν πυρι αποκαλυπτεται]
Apparently “the day” is the subject of the verb, not the work, not the Lord. See 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:8. This metaphor of fire was employed in the O.T. (Daniel 7:9.; Malachi 4:1) and by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:16.). It is a metaphor that must not be understood as purgatorial, but simple testing (Ellicott) as every fire tests (the fire itself will test, το πυρ αυτο δοκιμασει — to pur auto dokimasei) the quality of the material used in the building, of what sort it is (οποιον εστιν — hopoion estin), qualitative relative pronoun. Men today find, alas, that some of the fireproof buildings are not fireproof when the fire actually comes. [source]
1 Timothy 5:18 That treadeth out [ἀλοῶντα]
More correctly, while he is treading out. The verb only here and 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1 Corinthians 9:10. Comp. ἅλων a threshing-floor, Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17. An analogy to the O.T. injunction may be found in the laws giving to the Athenians by the mythical Triptolemus, one of which was, “Hurt not the laboring beast.” Some one having violated this command by slaying a steer which was eating the sacred cake that lay upon the altar, - an expiation-feast, Bouphonia or Diipolta was instituted for the purpose of atoning for this offense, and continued to be celebrated in Athens. Aristophanes refers to it (Clouds, 985). A laboring ox was led to the altar of Zeus on the Acropolis, which was strewn with wheat and barley. As soon as the ox touched the grain, he was killed by a blow from an axe. The priest who struck the blow threw away the axe and fled. The flesh of the ox was then eaten, and the hide was stuffed and set before the plough. Then began the steer-trial before a judicial assembly in the Prytaneum, by which the axe was formally condemned to be thrown into the sea. [source]

What do the individual words in Matthew 3:12 mean?

whose - winnowing fork [is] in the hand of Him and He will clear the threshing floor will gather the wheat into barn the but chaff He will burn up with fire unquenchable
οὗ τὸ πτύον ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ διακαθαριεῖ τὴν ἅλωνα συνάξει τὸν σῖτον εἰς ἀποθήκην τὸ δὲ ἄχυρον κατακαύσει πυρὶ ἀσβέστῳ

οὗ  whose 
Parse: Personal / Relative Pronoun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: ὅς 
Sense: who, which, what, that.
τὸ  - 
Parse: Article, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
πτύον  winnowing  fork  [is] 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: πτύον  
Sense: a winnowing shovel.
χειρὶ  hand 
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Singular
Root: χείρ  
Sense: by the help or agency of any one, by means of any one.
αὐτοῦ  of  Him 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.
διακαθαριεῖ  He  will  clear 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: διακαθαίρω 
Sense: to cleanse thoroughly.
ἅλωνα  threshing  floor 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: ἅλων  
Sense: a ground plot or threshing floor, i.
συνάξει  will  gather 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: συνάγω  
Sense: to gather together, to gather.
σῖτον  wheat 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular
Root: σιτίον 
Sense: wheat, grain.
εἰς  into 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
ἀποθήκην  barn 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: ἀποθήκη  
Sense: a place in which anything is laid by or up.
ἄχυρον  chaff 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: ἄχυρον  
Sense: a stalk of grain from which the kernels have been beaten out.
κατακαύσει  He  will  burn  up 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: κατακαίω  
Sense: to burn up, consume by fire.
πυρὶ  with  fire 
Parse: Noun, Dative Neuter Singular
Root: πῦρ  
Sense: fire.
ἀσβέστῳ  unquenchable 
Parse: Adjective, Dative Neuter Singular
Root: ἄσβεστος  
Sense: unquenched, unquenchable.