2. Usage in the NT. — The word 'firstborn' is used in the NT both literally and figuratively. In Lk 2^ our Lord is spoken of as Mary's ' firstborn ' ; in Mt 1^ the word, though found in CD and some versions, is clearly an interpolation. It implies in Lk. the privilege of the birthright ; but neither there nor in the OT does it necessarily imply other children, and therefore it has no bearing on the identity of the ' brethren ' of our Lord. Another, and still more important, deduction from this fact is that there is no contradiction between ' Only- begotten ' and ' Firstborn ' applied to the pre- existent Christ (see below). The latter title does not imply that there are other sons in the same Divine sense. — For the 'redemption of the first- born ' at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple see DCG i. 596 f. The word irpccTdroKa (Vulg. primitiva) is used literally in He IP^, of men and animals, ■with reference to the Egyptians.
The title ' Firstborn ' is given figuratively to our Lord in three difi'erent aspects. — {a) It refers to His pre-existence in Col 1'^ ('firstborn of all creation,' irpwrdroKOt Trdarjs KTicrews ; see Liglitfoot's exhaustive note in Colossians^, 1879, p. 144), and in He 1®, where it is used absolutely : ' the First- born.' This interpretation of Col P^ is required by the context : ' the image (elKiS:v) of the invisible God ... in him were all things created ... all things have been created through him, and unto him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist (cohere).' This is also the exegesis of all the earlier Fathers ; but, as the Arians used the text to show tiiat our Lord was a creature, several (but not all) of the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers interpreted it of the Incarnate Christ, while the later Greek Fathers went back to the earlier interpretation (see the references in Light- foot, p. 146 f.). The phrase denotes that tlie Son was before all creation ; to the Arians it Avas pointed out that the word used is not TrpwroKTiaros, which would have had the meaning they assigned to wpuiTdTOKos. The phrase further denotes that He is the Lord of all creation, for He has the rigiit of the Firstborn. The title ' Firstborn ' was used figuratively by the Jews of Messiah, from Ps 89^'' (wiiich they generally interpreted in a Messianic
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sense), and of Israel in Ex 4-^ ; this paved tlie waj' for the NT usage. Lightfoot (p. 144) remarks also that both TTpurroTOKos and elKuv were taken from the Alexandrian doctrine of the Logos (see also Only- Begottex).
(&) In Col p8 Jesus is called 'firstborn from the dead,' because He Avas the first to rise ; for Lazarus and others only rose to die again. So also in liev 1® : * firstborn of the dead.' The phrase is parallel ■with ' the firstfruits (d.Tapxn) of them that are asleep' in 1 Co IS-''.
(c) In Ro 8-^ the relation of the first-bom to his brethren is spoken of. Here, as in Col 1^^, ekuv occurs, but it is the image of the Son, not of the Father : ' whom he foreknew (took note of), he also conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.' The conformity of the Christian to the image of the Son is parallel with the fact that the Son is the image of the Father ; and the result of it is that all Christians become members of the family of God the Father, in which Jesus is the First-bom, and brother of them aU (He 2'^).
The title is used in the plural of Christians in He 12^: 'the church of the firstborn' (Vulg. primitivorum). Here we have an extension of the privilege ; there is not only one first-bom in the family, but many. We may, with Lightfoot, take the reference to be to all Christians as being first- born because all are kings (Rev 1^) ; the idea of ruling is so closely attached to the title that it can be thus extended, though the metaphor becomes confused — indeed, it was used by some Rabbis of God Himself (Lightfoot, p. 145). Some, however, interpret the phrase of the faithful departed who have gone before, and so are in a sense the first- born of the dead (cf. Grimm, Lex. in libros NT, Leipzig, 1879, s.v. Trpwr&roKos). For some modifica- tion of these views see AVestcott on He 12-^. In any case the ' firstborn ' are men, not angels, to whom the word would be inapplicable, and who could not be described as 'enrolled in heaven' (Westcott). A. J. Maclean.
FIRST-FRUIT {dirapxv, class. Gr. usually dirapxat, from dTrd.pxo/j.ai, 'otter firstlings or first-fruits'). — The word occurs six times in the Pauline Epistles, once in James, and once in Revelation. Its significance depends largely on the belief, Avhich the Hebrews shared with many ancient nations, that first-fruits were peculiarly sacred, and on the custom which prescribed them for the services of Jahweh. The oft'ering of first-fruits made the rest of the crop lawful. In LXX dTrapxv is the usual equivalent of rrrxn. On the Jewish institution of first-fruits, see EDB ii. 10 f. ; EEE vi. 46 f. ; and Schiirer, HJP li. i. [1885] 237-242.