This verse describes
wind winnowing, the period's standard process for separating the
wheat from the
chaff.
Ptyon, the word translated as
winnowing fork in the World English Bible is a tool similar to a
pitchfork that would be used to lift harvested
wheat up into the air into the wind. The wind would then blow away the lighter chaff allowing the edible grains to fall to the
threshing floor, a large flat surface. The unneeded chaff would then be burned. As with the axe already placed against the tree in the preceding verse, the winnowing fork is already in hand, emphasizing the nearness of judgement. Winnowing forks, generally made of wood, were common at the time, and several dating from this period have been found. Modern scholars mostly agree that the term "winnowing fork" is the most accurate but older versions have fan, shovel, broom, and other translations. In the
Eastern Orthodox church the word was most often interpreted as
broom and a common icon shows Christ holding a broom. In this verse John the Baptist is still assumed to be addressing the
Pharisees and
Sadducees. The
eschatological imagery is quite clear. The wheat represents those who are truly repentant, the chaff those like the Pharisees and Sadducees who are not. The messiah will clear the world, and those that are worthy would be brought into his "barn" while those that were unworthy will burn in unquenchable fire. France notes that unquenchable is in no way a synonym for eternal and that no doctrine of eternal damnation for the wicked should be read into this passage. ==Textual witnesses==