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. Bleek takes the epithet ἀσβέστῳ applied to the fire as signifying: inextinguishable till all the refuse be consumed. It is usually understood absolutely.