Separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12)

slider

The Bible has been the most influential text in all of Western culture. It's difficult to understand medieval or early modern or much of modern literature without knowing it...

Prof. Barbara Newman, Northwestern University
from 2006 Bible Literary project

slider

It's not that it's impossible to read some writers without a Biblical background, but that you would miss a whole dimension to their work.

Prof. Steven Goldsmith, University of California at Berkeley
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

slider

I can only say that if a student doesn't know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth

Prof. Robert Kiely, Harvard University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

slider

...there is truth in the remark. "without Tyndale[Bible translator], no Shakespeare"...

Prof. David Daniell, University College London
from The Bible in English

slider

You can't really study Western literature intelligently or coherently without starting with the Bible.

Prof. Gerald L. Bruns, University of Notre Dame
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

slider

...a familiar understanding of Christian doctrine in historical perspective thus contributes to a fuller appreciation of Shakespeare's art, but Shakespeare's art

Prof. Roland M. Frye
from Shakespeare and the Christian Doctrine

slider

In English tradition and also for an American tradition begun by Puritan writers, a knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is even more crucial than classical references.

Prof. Ulrich Knoefplmacher, Princeton University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

slider

There is no book more important for our culture than the Bible, and it is fundametal to the study of English literature and language.

Prof. David Jasper and Prof. Stephen Prickett
from the Bible and literature

Separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12)

Picture description: Wheat
Picture copyright: V.

bible verse

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

meaning

If you separate the wheat from the chaff, you separate things that are of a high standard from things that are of low quality.

origin and application

Chaff is separated from grain during threshing. This expression became a metaphor in the Bible to represent separating wickedness or false doctrines from the truth.
Chaff is figuratively used to stand for worthless matters.

example

Every year we pick our suppliers at the trade fair so that we can separate the wheat from the chaff.

Keywords

chaff high low separate wheat

Related Information

NIV official site
Chinese Bible (???)

< Previous Next >

Separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12)

bible verse

meaning

origin and application

example

Keywords

Related Information

Search idiom or name

FIND THE ORIGIN OF IDIOMS

From A-Z

Find By Book In The Bible

What's in a name?

Society for English Learning Through Biblical Literature

About Us

Resources