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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 3:12 - 3:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
12. πτύον, also called λικμός or λίκνον, Lat. vannus, was the instrument by which the corn after being threshed was thrown up against the wind to clear it of chaff. Cp. Il. XIII. 588–90.
ὡς δʼ ὃτʼ ἀπὸ πλατέος πτυόφιν μεγάλην κατʼ ἀλωὴν
θρώσκωσιν κύαμοι μελανόχροες ἢ ἐρέβινθοι
πνοιῇ ὑπὸ λιγυρῇ καὶ λικμητῆρος ἐρωῇ.
αὐτοῦ … αὐτοῦ … αὐτοῦ. The thrice repeated αὐτοῦ marks forcibly what are Christ’s—the hand, the floor, and the corn are His, but the chaff is not His. Cp. a similar prominence given to the sense of possession, Luk 12:18-19.
ἅλωνα. (From a root signifying ‘whirl,’ &c.) ‘A threshing-floor,’ a broad flat place, usually on a rocky hill-top exposed to the breeze, or in a wind-swept valley. ἅλωνα is here put for the contents of the threshing-floor, the mingled grain and chaff. Observe how the thought of the πνεῦμα ἅγιον and the πῦρ rises again in this verse, a different use being made of the metaphor. It is the divine wind—the Spirit of God that clears the grain (‘Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away.’ Isa 41:16); and the divine fire that burns the chaff.
The separation by Christ’s winnowing fan is sometimes a separation between individuals, sometimes a separation between the good and evil in the heart of a man or in a society or nation.
ἄχυρον. Cp. Aristoph. Ach. 471, 472.
ἀλλʼ ἐσμὲν αὐτοὶ νῦν γε περιεπτισμένοι
τοὺς γὰρ μετοίκους ἄχυρα τῶν ἀστῶν λέγω.
The ‘metics’ are the worthless ‘residuum’ of the citizens.
St Matthew represents the picturesque side of John’s preaching. These verses are full of imagery, 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.