Christ is called the first-fruits in 1 Cor. 15, solely in reference to his being the antitype of the wave-sheaf, and in contrast with the great harvest that will take place at his second coming. This word is used in different senses, as we learn from Jas. 1:18, and Rev. 14:4, where it cannot have reference to antecedence in time. This is all that need be said on this word.
The word rendered first-begotten and first-born is πρωτοτοκος (prototokos). This word is defined by Robinson thus: “Properly the first-born of father or mother;” and, as the first-born was entitled to certain prerogatives and privileges over the rest of the family, the word takes another meaning, namely, “first-born, the same as the first, the chief, one highly distinguished and pre-eminent. So of Christ, the beloved Son of God. Col. 1:15.” Greenfield’s definition is similar. This word is used in the same sense in the Septuagint. In Ex. 4:22, Israel is called the first-born; and in Jer. 31:9, Ephraim is called the first-born; but, in point of time, Esau was before Israel, and Manasseh before Ephraim. Their being called the first-born must therefore be owing to the rank, dignity, and station, to which they had attained.
And hence the conclusion is not without foundation that these words, when applied to Christ, denote the pre-eminent rank and station which he holds in the great work, rather than the order of time in which his resurrection occurred, a point to which no importance whatever can be attached. All hinges upon Christ, and all is accomplished by his power, and by virtue of his resurrection. He stands out foremost and pre-eminent in all these displays, whether they take place before or after his advent to this world.
The expression in Acts 27:23, presents apparently the greatest difficulty of any. The verse reads: “That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.” As it stands in our common version it is difficult to reconcile this statement with the fact that a number were raised from the dead previous to the resurrection of Christ as already noticed, and we are led to wonder why Paul, knowing of all these cases, should make such a statement. But, if we mistake not, the original presents a different idea. In Greenfield’s Testament, the text stands thus:--
Εἰ παθητὸς ὁ Χριστὸς, εἰ πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν φῶς μέλλει καταγγέλλειν τω λαῷ καὶ τοῖς ἔθνεσι.
We call the attention of those familiar with the Greek to this passage, and submit that it can be properly rendered as follows: “That Christ was to suffer, [and] that first from the resurrection of the dead he was to show light to the people and to the Gentiles.”
Bloomfield, in his note on this verse, says that the words “may be rendered, either ‘after the resurrection from the dead,’ or ‘by the resurrection;’ but the latter is preferable.” And Wakefield translates it thus: “That the Christ would suffer death, and would be the first to proclaim salvation to this people and to the Gentiles by a resurrection from the dead.”
This is in accordance with what the same apostle declared to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:10), that Christ brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And viewed in this light, the text is freed from all difficulty. It simply teaches that Christ would be the first to demonstrate before the people, by a resurrection from the dead, future life and immortality for the redeemed.
The resurrection of Lazarus, and other similar cases, though they might show that the power of death could be so far broken as to give us a new lease of mortal life, shed no light on our existence beyond this mortal state. And the resurrection of Moses, supposing him to have been raised, was not a public demonstration designed to show the people the path to a future life. So far as we have any account, no one knew that he had been raised till he appeared upon the mount of transfiguration. Christ was the first one to show to the world, by his rising from the dead, the great light of life and immortality beyond the grave.
Thus the last seeming objection against the idea that Moses had a resurrection is taken away; while in its favor we have his appearance on the mount, and the language of Jude, which can be explained on no other ground.