Matthew 3.12 and Traditionalist Translational Bias in the Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

J. D. Gallé | Friday, 10 March 2017

        The CSB[1] translates Matthew 3.12 in such a way that it is apt to reinforce belief in the doctrine of eternal, conscious punishment amongst its (principally) conservative evangelical readership:

“His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn [katakausei] with fire that never goes out [puri asbestō].”[2]

        By way of contrast, the BSB,[3] LEB,[4] MEV,[5] Mounce Reverse-Interlinear New Testament (2011), NASB,[6] NET,[7] and NKJV[8] translate katakaiō as ‘burn up’, and six of the seven preceding English Bible translations render pur asbestos as ‘unquenchable fire’.[9]
        The trouble with the CSB’s rendering of Matthew 3.12 is that it is interpretational in nature, potentially (if not very likely) misleading, and reflective of traditionalist translational bias. A fire that never goes out conforms well with the conventional notion that the wicked will be preserved for ever in a place of torment (i.e. ‘hell’), but such a reading of Matthew 3.12 is not derived from the actual text.

Katakaiō 

[K]ατακαίω [katakaiō] means not only to burn, but “to consume” by fire ([…]). It is used in relation to burning the gates of the Jerusalem temple (1 Mac. 4:38), of books (Acts 19:19), trees and grass of the earth (Rev 8:7), weeds (Matt 13:40), and chaff […] [Matt 3:12].[10]

Pur Asbestos

[T]he image of unquenchable fire throughout the Old Testament prophets, […] [describes] fire that cannot be resisted or put out. Not surprisingly, such a fire consumes, reduces to nothing and burns up whatever is put in it (Ezek 20:47-48; Amos 5:6; Mt 3:12).[11]

Commenting on Mark 9.43 and the ‘unquenchable fire’ of Gehenna, Kim Papaioannou observes:

[Ἄσβεστον (asbeston)] qualifies the nature of the πῦρ [pur], namely, that it cannot be put out by a third party. It is thus a description of the nature of the fire without any reference to duration.[12]

Conclusion

        When left unmolested by the traditionalist biases of certain English Bible translation committees, Matthew 3.12 can readily be seen as providing solid support for an annihilationist understanding of the future and final judgement of the unrepentant. The contrast John the Baptiser sets forth in this text is one of preservation and destruction. As wheat is gathered and preserved in a barn at the time of harvest, the righteous will be preserved from the wrath of God on Judgement Day. Conversely, as chaff is discarded and consumed at harvest time, the unrighteous will not be so preserved, but completely destroyed (see Matt. 13.30, 40).
        Regrettably, the Christian Standard Bible obscures this rather plain reading of Matthew 3.12 in two ways. The CSB (1) blunts the force of the term katakaiō (‘burn up’, ‘consume’) by rendering it simply as ‘burn’; and (2) reads duration into pur asbestos where such a consideration is absent (i.e. the ‘fire that never goes out’).

Notes

        1. Christian Standard Bible (2017). All emphases in scriptural quotations have been added by the author.
        2. Compare Matthew 3.12c in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (2009): ‘“But the chaff He will burn up [katakausei] with fire that never goes out [puri asbestō].”’
        3. Berean Study Bible (2016).
        4. Lexham English Bible (2012).
        5. Modern English Version (2014).
        6. New American Standard Bible (1995).
        7. New English Translation (1996–2006).
        8. New King James Version (1982).
        9. The NET reads ‘inextinguishable fire’.
        10. Kim Papaioannou, The Geography of Hell in the Teaching of Jesus: Gehena, Hades, the Abyss, the Outer Darkness Where There Is Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013), p. 69 n. 55.
        11. Edward William Fudge, ‘The Teachings of Jesus’, in idem and Robert A. Peterson, Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue, Spectrum Multiview Books (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2000), p. 38.
        12. Papaioannou, The Geography of Hell, p. 34.

Original content copyright © J. D. Gallé, 2017, 2018, 2021. All rights reserved.

Addendum.  Readers are encouraged to consult the volumes cited in this article (see nn. 10 and 11 above).


Latest revisions: 19 February 2018 (all colons dividing chapters and verses of scriptural references have been converted to full stops; added a comma in n. 10; altered a ‘cf.’ to ‘see’); 24 February 2018 (abbreviated a scriptural citation; converted one semi-colon to a comma); emended note 11 (9 Oct. 2021); altered one scriptural abbreviation (2 Dec. 2021).