Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 3:11-12

"I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and [in] fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor; and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire." — Matthew 3:11-12 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: Just as in the preceding words John had explained in more detail what he had briefly preached in the words, "Repent," so now follows a more complete expansion of the words, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." ¹

St. Gregory the Great: John baptizes not with the Spirit but with water, because he did not have the power to forgive sins. He washes the body with water, but not, at the same time, the soul with the pardon of sin. ²

St. John Chrysostom: For since the sacrifice had not yet been offered, nor had remission of sin been sent, nor had the Spirit descended on the water, how could sin be forgiven? But because the Jews never perceived their own sin, and this was the cause of all their evils, John came to bring them to an awareness of their sins by calling them to repentance. ³

St. Gregory the Great: Why then does he baptize, since he could not remit sin? He does so in order that he might preserve in all things the office of a forerunner. Just as his birth preceded Christ's birth, so his baptism would precede the Lord's baptism.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, John was sent to baptize so that to those who came to his baptism he might announce the Lord's presence among them in the flesh, as he himself testifies in another place, "That He might be manifested to Israel, therefore am I come to baptise with water" (John 1:31).

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, he baptizes because it was necessary for Christ to be baptized. But if John was sent only to baptize Christ, why was Christ not the only one baptized by John? Because if the Lord alone had been baptized by John, there would have been those who would insist that John's baptism was greater than Christ's, since Christ alone was worthy to be baptized by it. ⁴

Rabanus Maurus: Or, by this sign of baptism he separates the penitent from the impenitent and directs them to the baptism of Christ.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Because, then, he baptized on account of Christ, he preached to those who came to him for baptism that Christ would come, signifying the greatness of His power in the words, "He who cometh after me is mightier than I."

Remigius of Auxerre: There are five points in which Christ comes after John: His birth, preaching, baptism, death, and descent into hell. A beautiful expression is that, "mightier than I," because he is a mere man, while the other is God and man.

Rabanus Maurus: It is as if he had said, "I am indeed mighty to invite to repentance, but He is mighty to forgive sins; I am mighty to preach the kingdom of heaven, but He is mighty to bestow it; I am mighty to baptize with water, but He is mighty to baptize with the Spirit."

St. John Chrysostom: When you hear, "for He is mightier than I," do not suppose this is said by way of comparison, for I am not worthy to be numbered among his servants, that I might undertake the lowest office.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: He leaves to the Apostles the glory of carrying the Gospel, for it was their beautiful feet that were to bring the news of God's peace.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, by the "feet" of Christ we may understand Christians, especially the Apostles and other preachers, among whom was John the Baptist. The "shoes" are the infirmities with which He burdens the preachers. All of Christ's preachers wear these shoes, and John also wore them, but he declares himself unworthy so that he might show the grace of Christ and thus become greater than his own merits.

St. Jerome: In the other Gospels it is, "whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to loose." In the one, his humility is intended; in the other, his ministry. Christ is the Bridegroom, and John is not worthy to loose the Bridegroom's shoe, so that his house would not be called, according to the Law of Moses and the example of Ruth, "The house of him that hath his shoe loosed" (Deuteronomy 25:10).

Pseudo-Chrysostom: But since no one can give a benefit more worthy than he himself is, nor make another what he himself is not, he adds, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

John, who is carnal, cannot give a spiritual baptism; he baptizes with water, which is matter, so that he baptizes matter with matter. Christ is Spirit because He is God; the Holy Ghost is Spirit; the soul is spirit. Thus, Spirit with Spirit baptizes our spirit.

The baptism of the Spirit is profitable as the Spirit enters and embraces the mind, surrounding it as if with an impregnable wall, not allowing fleshly lusts to prevail against it. Indeed, it does not prevent the flesh from lusting, but it restrains the will from consenting to it.

And as Christ is Judge, He baptizes in fire, that is, in temptation; a mere man cannot baptize in fire. He alone is free to tempt who is also strong to reward. This baptism of tribulation burns up the flesh so that it does not generate lust, for the flesh does not fear spiritual punishment, but only carnal punishment. The Lord therefore sends carnal tribulation on His servants so that the flesh, fearing its own pains, may not lust after evil. See then how the Spirit drives away lust and does not allow it to prevail, while the fire burns up its very roots.

St. Jerome: Either the Holy Ghost Himself is a fire, as we learn from the Acts, when what looked like fire sat on the tongues of the believers. Thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled who said, "I am come to send fire on the earth, I will that it burn" (Luke 12:49).

Or, we are baptized now with the Spirit and hereafter with fire, as the Apostle says, "Fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3:13).ⁱ

St. John Chrysostom: He does not say, "shall give you the Holy Ghost," but "shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost," showing in a metaphor the abundance of the grace.

This further shows that in the life of faith, the will alone is needed for justification, not labors and toils. And just as it is an easy thing to be baptized, so it is an easy thing to be changed and made better.ⁱ

By "fire" he signifies the strength of grace, which cannot be overcome. This also helps us understand that He makes His own people immediately like the great prophets of old, since most prophetic visions involved fire.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: It is plain, then, that the baptismⁱ of Christ does not undo the baptism of John but includes it within itself. He who is baptized in Christ's name has both baptisms: that of water and that of the Spirit. For Christ is Spirit, and has taken a body to Himself so that He might give both a bodily and a spiritual baptism.

John's baptism does not include the baptism of Christ, because the lesser cannot include the greater. Thus the Apostle, having found certain Ephesians baptized with John's baptism, baptized them again in the name of Christ because they had not been baptized in the Spirit. In this way, Christ baptized a second time those who had been baptized by John, just as John himself declared He would: "I baptize you with water; but He shall baptize you with the Spirit."

And yet they were not baptized twice but once; for since the baptism of Christ was more than that of John, it was a new one given, not the same one repeated.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: He marks the time of our salvation and judgment in the Lord. For those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit, it remains for them to be perfected by the fire of judgment.

Rabanus Maurus: By the "fan" is signified the separation of a just trial. That it is in the Lord's hand means "in His power," as it is written, "The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son."

Pseudo-Chrysostom: The "floor" is the Church, the "barn" is the kingdom of heaven, and the "field" is the world. The Lord sends forth His Apostles and other teachers as reapers to reap all nations of the earth and gather them into the floor of the Church.

Here we must be threshed and winnowed, for all people delight in carnal things just as grain delights in the husk. But whoever is faithful and has the core of a good heart, as soon as he faces a light tribulation, neglects carnal things and runs to the Lord. If his faith is feeble, however, he does so only with heavy sorrow; and he who is altogether void of faith, no matter how he may be troubled, does not turn to God.

When first threshed, the wheat lies in one heap with the chaff and straw, and is afterward winnowed to be separated. In the same way, the faithful are mixed together in one Church with the unfaithful. But persecution comes like a wind so that, tossed by Christ's fan, those whose hearts were already separate may now also be separated in place. He will not merely cleanse, but "thoroughly cleanse"; therefore, the Church must necessarily be tried in many ways until this is accomplished.

First the Jews winnowed it, then the Gentiles, now the heretics, and in time Antichrist shall thoroughly winnow it. For just as a gentle blast carries off only the lighter chaff while the heavier remains, so a slight wind of temptation carries off only the worst people. But should a greater storm arise, even those who seem steadfast will depart. Heavier persecution is needed, then, for the Church to be cleansed.

Remigius of Auxerre: The Lord cleanses this floor of His—that is, the Church—in this life, both when the wicked are put out of the Church by the sentence of the priests, and when they are cut off by death.

Rabanus Maurus: The cleansing of the floor will be finally accomplished when the Son of Man shall send His Angels, and shall gather all offences out of His kingdom.

St. Gregory the Great: After the threshing is finished in this life, where the grain now groans under the burden of the chaff, the fan of the last judgment will so separate them that no chaff will pass into the granary, nor will any grain fall into the fire that consumes the chaff. ⁵

St. Hilary of Poitiers: He declares that the wheat—that is, the full and perfect fruit of the believer—will be laid up in heavenly barns. By the chaff, he means the emptiness of the unfruitful.

Rabanus Maurus: There is this difference between the chaff and the tares: the chaff is produced from the same seed as the wheat, but the tares are from a different kind of seed. The chaff, therefore, are those who enjoy the sacraments of the faith but are not solid; the tares are those who, in profession as well as in works, are separated from the company of the good.

Remigius of Auxerre: The unquenchable fire is the punishment of eternal damnation, either because it never totally destroys or consumes those it has seized but torments them eternally, or to distinguish it from purgatorial fire, which is kindled for a time and then extinguished.

St. Augustine of Hippo: If anyone asks which words John actually spoke—those reported by Matthew, Luke, or Mark—it can be shown that there is no difficulty here for someone who rightly understands that the meaning is essential for our knowledge of the truth, while the specific words are not. It is clear we should not consider any testimony false simply because the same event is related in different words and ways by several people who were present. ⁶

Whoever thinks that the Evangelists could have been so inspired by the Holy Spirit that they would not have differed among themselves in the choice, number, or order of their words fails to see something important. The more preeminent the authority of the Evangelists, the more their example establishes the truthfulness of other people who report events under similar circumstances.

But the discrepancy may seem to be in the substance, not only in the words, between "I am not worthy to bear His shoes" and "to loose His shoe-latchet." Which of these two expressions did John use? The one who reported the exact words will seem to have spoken the truth, while the one who reported other words—even if he did not hide anything or forget—will have said one thing for another.

But the Evangelists should be free from every kind of falsehood, not only from lying but also from forgetfulness. If this discrepancy is important, then we may suppose that John used both expressions, either at different times or at the same time.

But if John only meant to express the Lord's greatness and his own humility, then the meaning is preserved whether he used one phrase or the other. Even if someone were to repeat the same profession of humility in his own words using the figure of the shoes, the will and intention would not differ.

This, then, is a useful rule to remember: it is not a lie when someone accurately represents the meaning of a person whose speech he is recounting, even if he uses different words, as long as he shows that the meaning is the same. Understood this way, it is a wholesome guideline that we are to inquire only after the speaker's meaning.

1. non occ.
2. Hom. in Ev., 7. 3
3. Hom. 10, 1
4. in Joann. Tract. v. 5
5. Mor. 34. 5
6. de Cons. Evan., ii. 12