📖 Biblical Definition
Winnowing is the post-threshing agricultural process of tossing the mixed grain-and-chaff into the air with a winnowing fork, so that the lighter chaff is blown away by the wind and the heavier kernel falls back to the threshing floor. In Scripture it becomes the figure of God’s decisive separation of the righteous from the wicked. John the Baptist describes the coming Christ with the fan (winnowing-fork) in His hand: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). The wind on the floor reveals what was wheat all along.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
WIN'NOWING, ppr.
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Separating chaff from grain by means of wind; figuratively, sifting, examining, or distinguishing.
📖 Key Scripture
Matthew 3:12 — "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor."
Jeremiah 15:7 — "I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land."
Ruth 3:2 — "He winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor."
Luke 22:31 — "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity blurs wheat and chaff; Christ holds the winnowing fan and will not.
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Matthew 3:12 is one of the sharper lines about Christ in the Gospels. John the Baptist sees Him as one whose fan is in his hand — the winnowing fork the farmer uses to lift grain into the wind — and who will throughly purge his floor. The chaff burns in unquenchable fire; the wheat is gathered into the garner. Christ is meek to the bruised reed and decisive to the chaff; both portraits stand.
Luke 22:31 carries the winnowing into individual lives: Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. The enemy's motive is destruction; the Lord's motive is purification; both involve sifting. Christ added the comfort: I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. When you are being winnowed, take heart — the Master is at the floor with the fan, and your faith is being prayed for by the High Priest Himself.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew zarah (H2219); Greek diakatharizo (G1245).
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H2219 — zarah — to winnow, scatter
G1245 — diakatharizo — to thoroughly cleanse
G4425 — ptuon — winnowing fork, fan
Usage
"Modern Christianity blurs wheat and chaff; Christ holds the winnowing fan and will not."
"When you are being winnowed, take heart — the Master is at the floor and your High Priest is praying for you."
"Christ is meek to the bruised reed and decisive to the chaff; both portraits stand."