Yesaya 1:31

1:31 The powerful will be like ¹  a thread of yarn,

their deeds like a spark;

both will burn together,

and no one will put out the fire.

Yesaya 30:30

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ² 

and intervene in power, ³ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ⁴ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

Zakharia 13:9

13:9 Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire;

I will refine them like silver is refined

and will test them like gold is tested.

They will call on my name and I will answer;

I will say, ‘These are my people,’

and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” ⁵ 

Matius 3:11

3:11 “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but the one coming after me is more powerful than I am – I am not worthy ⁶  to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ⁷ 

Lukas 3:17

3:17 His winnowing fork ⁸  is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, ⁹  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹⁰ 

[1:31]  ¹ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB, NIV).

[30:30]  ² tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ³ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[13:9]  ⁵ sn The expression I will say ‘It is my people,’ and they will say ‘the Lord is my God’ is reminiscent of the restoration of Israel predicted by Hosea, who said that those who had been rejected as God’s people would be reclaimed and once more become his sons and daughters (Hos 2:23).

[3:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “of whom I am not worthy.”

[3:11]  sn The humility of John is evident in the statement I am not worthy. This was considered one of the least worthy tasks of a slave, and John did not consider himself worthy to do even that for the one to come, despite the fact he himself was a prophet.

[3:11]  ⁷ sn With the Holy Spirit and fire. There are differing interpretations for this phrase regarding the number of baptisms and their nature. (1) Some see one baptism here, and this can be divided further into two options. (a) The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire could refer to the cleansing, purifying work of the Spirit in the individual believer through salvation and sanctification, or (b) it could refer to two different results of Christ’s ministry: Some accept Christ and are baptized with the Holy Spirit, but some reject him and receive judgment. (2) Other interpreters see two baptisms here: The baptism of the Holy Spirit refers to the salvation Jesus brings at his first advent, in which believers receive the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of fire refers to the judgment Jesus will bring upon the world at his second coming. One must take into account both the image of fire and whether individual or corporate baptism is in view. A decision is not easy on either issue. The image of fire is used to refer to both eternal judgment (e.g., Matt 25:41) and the power of the Lord’s presence to purge and cleanse his people (e.g., Isa 4:4-5). The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, a fulfillment of this prophecy no matter which interpretation is taken, had both individual and corporate dimensions. It is possible that since Holy Spirit and fire are governed by a single preposition in Greek, the one-baptism view may be more likely, but this is not certain. Simply put, there is no consensus view in scholarship at this time on the best interpretation of this passage.

[3:17]  ⁸ sn A winnowing fork is a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blows away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:17]  ⁹ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building for housing livestock).

[3:17]  ¹⁰ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.