Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
All Commentaries on Luke 3:7 Go To Luke 3
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
The tree is the entire human race in this world. The axe is our Redeemer. His humanity is like the axe’s handle and iron head. It is his divinity that cuts. The axe is now laid at the root of the tree because, although he is waiting patiently, what he will do is nonetheless apparent. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Every wicked person, refusing to bear the fruit of good works in this life, will find the conflagration of Gehenna all the more swiftly prepared for him or her. We must note that he says that the axe is laid not at the branches but at the root. When the children of evil persons are destroyed, what else does this mean but that the branches of the tree that bears no fruit are being cut off? When an entire progeny is destroyed, as well as its parents, the tree that bears no fruit is being cut down from its root. Then nothing will be left from which descendants might sprout again.
