Luke 3:9 — Community Reflections

LUKE 3:9 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire — the ax already at the root communicates judgment already in motion. Every tree without fruit cut down and thrown into fire: the judgment is comprehensive and its result total. The agricultural metaphor makes the criterion clear: fruit — the visible evidence of transformed life.

Church Fathers on Luke 3:9

No one that remains in his old state, and forsakes not his old habits and practices, can rightly come to be baptized; whoever then wishes to be baptized, let him go forth. Hence are those words significantly spoken, And he said to the multitude that went forth to be baptized of him. To the multitudes then who are going forth to the laver of baptism, He speaks the following words, for if they had already gone forth, He would not have said, O generation of vipers.
Origen · 3rd century

The dweller in the wilderness, when he saw all the people of Palestine standing round him and wondering, bent not beneath the weight of such respect, but rose up against them and reproved them. The holy Scripture often gives the names of wild beasts to men, according to the passions which excite them, calling them sometimes dogs because of their impudence, horses on account of their lust, asses for their folly, lions and panthers for their ravening and wantonness, asps for…
Chrysostom · 4th century

Now it may be observed, that the following words natus and filius are spoken of animals, but genimen may be said of the fetus before it is formed in the womb; the fruit of the palm trees is also called genimina, but that word is very seldom used with respect to animals, and when it is, always in a bad sense.
Basil the Great · 4th century

Read all 22 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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