Luke 3:17

fan Rather, winnowing-fan. The Latin vannus, a great shovel with which corn was thrown up against the wind to separate it from the chaff.

his floor Rather, threshing-floor. The word is the same as that from which our halois derived, since the threshing-floors of the ancients were circular.

the chaff The word includes straw and stubble. We find similar metaphors in Psalms 1:4, "the ungodly … are like the chaff;" Malachi 4:1, "all that do wickedly shall be stubble;" Jeremiah 15:7, "I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land." So far as the allusion is to the separation of good from evil elements in the Church we find similar passages in Matthew 13:30; 1 John 2:19, &c. But it may refer also to the destruction of the evil elements in a mixed character, as in Luke 22:31, "Simon … Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."

into his garner Comp. Matthew 13:30, "gather the wheat into my barn."

burn Rather, burn up.