Matthew 3:12

Fan. Gr. ptuon, a “winnowing shovel” with which grain was lifted from the threshing floor and thrown against the wind to clear it of chaff (see on Ruth 3:2). The grain would fall back to the floor, and the chaff would be blown off to one side, and eventually burned.

Thoroughly purge. Gr. diakatharizo, “to cleanse thoroughly, completely,” or “to cleanse from end to end.” “Thoroughly” is an obsolete form of the word “thoroughly.” The illustration is that of a farmer beginning at one side of his threshing floor and proceeding systematically across it to the other side.

Gather his wheat The process of separating the righteous from the wicked takes place at the “end of the world” (see ch. 13:30, 39-43, 49, 50).

Garner. Or, “granary.”

Burn up the chaff. As was frequently done by the Judean farmer once the wheat had been safely stored away. Compare on Ps. 1:4.

Unquenchable. Gr. asbestos, “inextinguishable,” “not quenchable,” or “unquenched.” Doubtless John the Baptist based his message on the words of Malachi (ch. 3:1-3; 4; see Mark 1:2). Christ specifically stated that John fulfilled the prediction of Malachi (Mal. 4:5; cf. Matt. 11:14; 17:12). When John spoke of “unquenchable fire” he may have had in mind the words of Mal. 4:1, concerning the day of the Lord, “that shall burn as an oven,” when all the wicked will “be stubble.” The fire of that great day, Malachi continues, would “burn them up” so completely that “neither root nor branch” would remain (ch. 4:1; see also ch. 3:2, 3). See Josephus War ii. 17.6 [425].

Far from conveying the idea of a fire that burns eternally in which the wicked are endlessly tormented, the Scriptures emphasize the fact that the wicked are to be burned up so completely that nothing will be left of them. The idea of an eternally burning hell fire is foreign to the Inspired Word, as it is to the character of God. The Scriptures state concerning Sodom and Gomorrah that they are “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 7; cf. 2 Peter 2:6). But the fires that consumed those wicked cities went out long ago; they are not burning today. Yet those cities are given as an “example” of what the fires of the last great day will be like.

In a similar way, Jeremiah predicted that God would kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that would consume even the palaces of the city, and “not be quenched” (Jer. 17:27). This was literally fulfilled a few years later when Nebuchadnezzar took the city, in 586 B.C. (Jer. 52:12, 13; cf. Neh. 1:3). Quite obviously the fire is not burning today. As chaff from a Judean threshing floor was utterly consumed, and nothing but ashes remained, so the wicked will be burned with “unquenchable fire” on the last great day until nothing but their ashes remain (Mal. 4:3). The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), eternal death, not eternal life miraculously preserved by a vengeful God, in the midst of fire that never goes out. The righteous are promised eternal life (Rom. 2:7), and the death of the wicked will be as permanent as the life of the righteous. See on Isa. 66:24.