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God)”; in 6:1 “the first (principles) of Christ,” lit., “(the account) of the beginning of
Christ,” i.e., the elementary teaching concerning Christ. In Acts 26:4, where the word is
preceded by
, “from,” the
KJV
has “at the first,” the
RV
, “from the beginning.”
Notes:
(1) In Jude 6
has the meaning “principality,” as in the
RV
and the
KJV
margin.
(2) In 2 Cor. 8:12
, “to be present,” lit., “to lie beforehand” ( , “before,”
, “to lie”),
RV
renders “(if the readiness) is there,” for
KJV
, “if there be first (a
willing mind).” See
SET
, A, No. 23.
FIRST-BEGOTTEN, FIRSTBORN
(
$
, 4416), “firstborn” (from
, “first,” and
, “to
beget”), is used of Christ as born of the Virgin Mary, Luke 2:7; further, in His
relationship to the Father, expressing His priority to, and preeminence over, creation, not
in the sense of being the “first” to be born. It is used occasionally of superiority of
position in the OT, see Exod. 4:22; Deut. 21:16, 17, the prohibition being against the evil
of assigning the privileged position of the “firstborn” to one born subsequently to the
“first” child.
The five passages in the NT relating to Christ may be set forth chronologically thus:
(a) Col. 1:15, where His eternal relationship with the Father is in view, and the clause
means both that He was the “Firstborn” before all creation and that He Himself produced
creation (the genitive case being objective, as v. 16 makes clear); (b) Col. 1:18 and Rev.
1:5, in reference to His resurrection; (c) Rom. 8:29, His position in relationship to the
church; (d) Heb. 1:6,
RV
, His second advent (the
RV
“when He again bringeth in,” puts
“again” in the right place, the contrast to His first advent, at His birth, being implied); cf.
Ps. 89:27. The word is used in the plural, in Heb. 11:28, of the firstborn sons in the
families of the Egyptians, and in 12:23, of the members of the Church.¶
Note:
With (a) cf. John 1:30, “He was before me,” lit., “He was first (
) of me,”
i.e., “in regard to me,” expressing all that is involved in His preexistence and priority.
FIRSTFRUIT(S)
(
$ )
, 536) denotes, primarily, “an offering of firstfruits” (akin to
, “to make a beginning”; in sacrifices, “to offer firstfruits”). “Though the
English word is plural in each of its occurrences save Rom. 11:16, the Greek word is
always singular. Two Hebrew words are thus translated, one meaning the “chief” or
“principal part,” e.g., Num. 18:12; Prov. 3:9; the other, “the earliest ripe of the crop or of
the tree,” e.g., Exod. 23:16; Neh. 10:35; they are found together, e.g., in Exod. 23:19,
“the first of the firstfruits.”
“The term is applied in things spiritual, (a) to the presence of the Holy Spirit with the
believer as the firstfruits of the full harvest of the Cross, Rom. 8:23; (b) to Christ Himself
in resurrection in relation to all believers who have fallen asleep, 1 Cor. 15:20, 23; (c) to
the earliest believers in a country in relation to those of their countrymen subsequently
converted, Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:15; (d) to the believers of this age in relation to the
whole of the redeemed, 2 Thess. 2:13 (see
Note
below) and Jas. 1:18. Cf. Rev. 14:4.¶*
* From
Notes on Thessalonians,
by Hogg and Vine, p. 271.