** The same custom is kept up by modern orthodox Jews ; if the day falls on a .Sabbath or a Holy Day, the ceremony is per- formed on the following day.
ment which has to be made for the puritication of the mother ; it may be owing to Lv 12 that in Lk 2^- 'their' purification is spoken of, i.e. of the child as well as of the mother ; at any rate v.'-^ seems to point to an amalgamation of the offerings due from the mother for puritication, and on behalf of tlie child for redemption ; * in the modern service of prayer of thanksgiving for women after recovery from childbirth no provi- sion is made for any offering.
Literature. — See the authorities referred to in the foot- notes. W. O. E. OE.STERLKY.
FIRST-FRUITS.— On the offering of first-fruits as a Jewish institution see Hastings' DB, vol. ii. p. 10 f.
The word rendered first-fruits (dTropxi;) occurs 8 times in the NT, and only in 1 Co 15-"- ^ is it applied directly to our Lord : ' Now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleej) ' ; ' Christ the first-fruits ; then they that are Christ's.' It is possible, as some have suggested, that there is a reference in v.-" to the specific oflerino; of the sheaf of the first ripe corn on the second day of the Passover feast (Lv 03111. 11) The coincidence of our Lord's resurrection on the 16th Nisan — the day on which the sheaf was offered before the Lord— would no doubt suggest the idea of the first-fruits to the Apostle's mind. But, even apart from this specific reference, the figure of the risen Christ as the first-fruits from the dead is perfectly natural. And there is more here than might be at first s\ii.|h.>i.(1. Christ's resurrection is the pledge of His ]no|ili' ^ re.surrec- tion, just as the first-fruits a\cicj tliu [.li(l;;c of the harvest to come. Christ is the first to be raised from the dead, and so stands in the front rank alone, as the first-fruits were plucked before the rest of the produce was ripe ; but, just as certainly as the harvest in due time followed the first-fruits, so shall those who sleep in Christ be raised up in due time, and stand in the second rank after Him. But, further, it is clearly implied here, and ex- plicitly taught in other passages, that as is Christ the first-fruits, so shall be the rest of the harvest. There is implied here a community of nature and character between Christ, the first-fruits, and His people. It is only the time of their manifestation that is different. The portion gathered as first- fruits is of the same nature as the rest, and the rest is of the same nature and character and standing as the first-fruits. This is indicated specially in v.-', where it is said that, as death came by man, so it is only by man that the resurrection can come, i.e. resurrection and triumph over death can be man's possession only when given him by one who is man like himself. Man, therefore, must be of the same nature and character and standing as Christ, the first-fruits. What is suggested here is plainly taught elsewhere (Col 3^ Ko 8=», 1 Jn 3=). Christ, according to these passages, is the first-fruits, the firstborn among many brethren, not only as the pledge that, as He rose, so His peoiile shall rise from the dead, but also that as He is, in nature and character, so shall His people be. That is, perhaps, the most glorious promise of the resurrec- tion first-fruits.
In Ro 8-^ the first-fruits of the Spirit received by Christ's people are referred to. That they have received the Spirit in some measure and have been sanctified inwardly, is the pledge that they shall receive it in yet greater abundance, that there shall be a final outpouring of the Spirit by which the body of man shall be redeemed even as the spirit has been sanctified — the psychical body being
* Among modern orthodox Jews, priests and Levites are exempt from the law of redeeming their firstborn ; this applies also to those whose wives are daughters of priests or Levites.
598
FISH, FISHEK, FISHING
FISH, FISHER, FISHIXO
changed into a spiritual. In Ko 11'* 16'', 1 Co 16''', Ja l", Kev 14-' the reference is to the future redemption of mankind, of which those already gathered in are the tirst-fruits and pledge. Those already redeemed and presented to God as holy are the tirst-fruits, the pledge of the coming har- vest of a holy redeemed humanity.
LiTKRATl-RE.— Schiirer, UJPh. i. 237 ; Edersheim, The Temple : its Minislnj, etc., xix. ; Stapter, Palestine in Time of Christ, bk. ii. ch. yj ; .losephs, .ludaism an Creed aiid Life, bk. ii. ch. 5 ; art. ' Fir.-t- Fruits' in Jew. Encyc. vol. v.
J. SOUTAR.
FISH, FISHER, FISHING.— The present article is not concerned \\ith the tish of the Mediterranean, nor with those which inhabit various watercourses in the Holy Land, nor even with those that l)elong to the lower course of the Jordan or of its southeiu tributaries, or of the other streams that How into the Dead Sea. Tlie only lish mentioned in the Gospels, the omy ones, consequently, which come within the scope of thus Dictionary, are tliose of the Lake of Gennesaret, to which we naturally add those that are found in the upper course of the Jordan or in tho springs in the neighbourliood of tlie Lake.