What Does Luke 3:17 Mean?
Whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather the wheat into his storehouse; but the chaff he will burn up in a fire that cannot be put out.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.THE KEY
The winnowing is one act with two ends: the wheat is gathered, while the chaff meets fire that cannot be extinguished.
THE MEANING
The hand is already at work: the floor is being cleared, and what lies on it meets distinct ends. The wheat is gathered into the storehouse; the chaff is burned in fire that cannot be quenched. The verse holds preservation and destruction together without merging them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that the sorting preserves every part is overturned: the grain is stored, but the chaff is burned.
THE ROOT
διακαθαριεῖ
diakathariei
GROWS FROM
καθαρ-
kathar-
Clean, pure; to make clean.
“thoroughly clean out” in this verse is diakathariei. The verb belongs to the same family as clean and cleanse, and its compound form means a thorough clearing. Here that clearing is concrete winnowing: the wheat is gathered, while the chaff is burned.
ALSO GROWS
katharós: Clean, pure.
καθαρός
This adjective shares the seed beneath the floor-clearing verb, showing that the action belongs to a family of cleansing words.
katharízō: Cleanse, make clean.
καθαρίζω
Luke’s verb builds on this same cleansing verb and intensifies it into a thorough clearing.
katharismós: Cleansing, purification.
καθαρισμός
This noun names cleansing as an act or result, showing how the root family holds both action and outcome.
ἀσβέστῳ
asbestōi
GROWS FROM
σβέννυμι
sbénnymi
Quench, extinguish.
“a fire that cannot be put out” in this verse is asbestōi. The adjective means what cannot be extinguished, formed around the verb for quenching. The same verb describes the fire that is ‘not quenched’ in Mark 9:48, making the force of this ending explicit.
ALSO GROWS
sbénnytai: Is quenched, is extinguished.
σβέννυται
Mark 9:48 uses this form for the fire that ‘is not quenched,’ directly echoing Luke’s image.
sbénnyte: Quench.
σβέννυτε
The same verb appears in 1 Thessalonians 5:19: ‘Quench not the Spirit’; the root consistently names putting something out.
συνάξει
synáxei
GROWS FROM
ἄγω
agō
Bring, lead; with σύν (syn), together.
“gather” in this verse is synáxei. The verb carries both motion and collection: the wheat is brought together into the storehouse. The root family keeps the sense of togetherness inside the act of gathering.
ALSO GROWS
synágō: Gather, bring together.
συνάγω
This is the verb’s base form: the grain is collected into one destination.
synagōgḗ: Gathering, assembly.
συναγωγή
The related noun carries the same seed of gathering together, extending the verb’s sense of collection.
THE PATTERN
The harvest reveals a real division: what bears grain is gathered, while what is chaff is scattered or burned.
The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the breath blows away.For, behold, the day shall come, burning like an oven, and all the seething ones, and all who do wickedness, shall be stubble. The coming day shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, leaving them neither root nor branch.Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the weeds, and bind them into bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my granary.THE THREAD
Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.Luke calls the fire unquenchable; Mark uses the same Greek verb family to say the fire is not quenched. The shared root makes the ending unmistakable: the fire does not go out.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us