Firstfruits · The Types of Christ
Firstfruits
Before Israel could eat any of the new harvest, one sheaf had to be waved before God — the first of it, standing for all of it. Paul says Jesus rose as that sheaf, and calls Him the firstfruits outright.
One Sheaf, Waved
— Leviticus 23:9-14 — the ordinance before any meaning is put on itTHE ARTWORKBruegel painted a wheat field in the middle of being cut: a wedge of it already down, most of it still standing, and the harvesters sprawled under a tree eating lunch. That is the exact situation this page is about — the first of the crop is in, and the field is not. The picture is not decoration here; it is the argument, standing in a Flemish August.
Before anything is said about what firstfruits means, here is what it was. When Israel came into the land and began to reap, the first sheaf of the harvest went to the priest, and he lifted it before the LORD — waved it, the text says — so that it would be accepted on their behalf. And there was a rule attached, and it is a strict one: until that sheaf was waved, nobody ate any of it. No bread, no roasted grain, no fresh heads. Not a mouthful of the new crop before the first of it had gone to God.
A note on scope, said once so it is not a puzzle later. This page is about what firstfruits is and what the New Testament does with it. The Feast of Firstfruits as one of the seven appointed times — where it sits in the calendar, how it relates to Passover and Weeks — gets its own page later in this build, and the calendar material is kept there rather than half-told here.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD, along with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made by fire to the LORD, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. You must not eat any bread or roasted or new grain until the very day you have brought this offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live.The sheaf, the waving, the acceptance — and the rule that nothing is eaten until it is done.
The word Omer means both. But in this passage the expression "handful" is most appropriate, since it represented in a lively manner the beginning of the harvest; inasmuch as it was not lawful to taste even of parched grain before the offering of the firstfruits.
John Calvin· Commentaries, 1554Reformed
Leviticus 23:10
He shalt wave the sheaf - He shall move it to and fro before the people, and thereby call their attention to the work of Divine Providence, and excite their gratitude to God for preserving to them the kindly fruits of the earth. See Clarkes note on Exo 29:27, and Exodus 7 at end.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Methodist
Leviticus 23:11
The same principle runs across the whole year and the whole nation: Exodus 23 puts the first of the ground’s produce into the house of the LORD, and Deuteronomy 26 makes a farmer say a short creed over his basket before he sets it down. Firstfruits is not a one-off ritual. It is a habit of mind about who the harvest came from.
You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.The harvest festivals named by what a farmer brings to them.
Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.The first of the firstfruits goes to the house of the LORD — the rule stated at its shortest.
When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it, you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name, to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have entered the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.” Then the priest shall take the basket from your hands and place it before the altar of the LORD your God, and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.A farmer sets down his basket and recites his own history before he says thank you.
The word the sheaf passage actually usesa floor datum most treatments miss
Leviticus 23:10-11 does not use בִּכּוּרִים bikkurim, the word most people mean when they say “firstfruits.” In Leviticus 23 that word occurs only at verses 17 and 20 — of the two loaves waved at Pentecost, fifty days after the sheaf. The sheaf passage uses רֵאשִׁית reshith, “the first of,” together with עֹמֶר omer, “sheaf.”
That is worth getting right, because it makes the two feasts distinguishable at the level of the words themselves. And there is a bridge in it: omer is the very same word as the daily measure of manna in Exodus 16 — one word for the sheaf that opened the harvest and the ration that kept a nation alive in a desert.
A smaller observation, offered as an observation and not built into an argument: reshith is also the first word of the Bible — בְּרֵאשִׁית, “in the beginning.”
From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks. You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.Fifty days on from the sheaf: two loaves, and the word most people mean by “firstfruits” is here rather than there.
Christ the Firstfruits
— 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 — Paul does not draw a comparison; he makes an identificationRead the sentence carefully, because the grammar is the point. Paul does not say Christ is like the firstfruits, or that the sheaf reminds us ofthe resurrection. He says: Christ has been raised, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. It is an identification, and once it is made the ordinance’s own logic takes over. A firstfruit is not a solitary thing. It is the first of a harvest, and it guarantees the harvest — and Paul immediately says there is an order to what follows.
One sheaf
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.Leviticus 23:10-11
Not בִּכּוּרִים bikkurim. That famous firstfruits word is not in the sheaf passage at all — in Leviticus 23 it appears only at verses 17 and 20, of the two loaves at Pentecost.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.1 Corinthians 15:20
afterward
Paul’s own word for the gap (1 Corinthians 15:23). This space is empty on purpose — the harvest has begun and is not finished, and we are standing in it.
Then the whole field
But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.1 Corinthians 15:23
One Greek word, aparche, carries four different subjects across the New Testament. Set them side by side and the shape shows.
The Spirit, in us
Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.Romans 8:23
Believers
He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.James 1:18
Israel
If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.Romans 11:16
“The morrow after the Sabbath” — two readings, and the page does not pick
The first day of Unleavened Bread
“The Sabbath” in Leviticus 23:11 means the festival rest day, Nisan 15 — so the sheaf is waved on Nisan 16, the same date every year, whatever weekday it falls on.
John Wesley takes it this way explicitly in his notes on the verse. It is the Pharisaic reading, and the one later rabbinic practice followed.
The weekly Sabbath
“The Sabbath” means the ordinary seventh day — so the sheaf is always waved on a Sunday, on a floating date. This is the reading on which the sheaf falls on resurrection morning.
The Sadducean reading in the Second Temple period, and the Samaritan and Karaite reading afterward. It is named here in prose because no commentator in this page’s sources argues it — and a quotation will not be manufactured for a position to make it look better defended than the record shows.
Both readings are ancient and both are held by serious people. Notice what does notdepend on the outcome: Paul’s claim. He calls Christ the firstfruits on the ground of the resurrection itself, not on the ground of a calendar calculation, and his argument in 1 Corinthians 15 stands whichever reckoning is right.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.The identification, and then the order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who belong to Him.
"But every man in his own order." For do not, because thou hearest of a resurrection, imagine that all enjoy the same benefits. Since if in the punishment all will not suffer alike but the difference is great; much more where there are sinners and righteous men shall the separation be yet wider. "Christ the first-fruits, then they that are Christ's;" i.e., the faithful and the approved.
John Chrysostom· Homily on 1 Corinthians 39, 407Church Father
1 Corinthians 15:23
He calls Him, then, "the first-fruits of them that sleep," as the "first-begotten of the dead." For He, having risen, and being desirous to show that that same (body) had been raised which had also died, when His disciples were in doubt, called Thomas to Him, and said, "Reach hither; handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not bone and flesh, as ye see me have." In calling Him the first-fruits, he testified to that which we have said, viz., that the Saviour, taking to Himself the flesh out of the same lump, raised this same flesh, and made it the first-fruits of the flesh of the righteous, in order that all we who have believed in the hope of the Risen One may have the resurrection in expectation.
Hippolytus of Rome· Fragments - Dogmatical and Historical, 235Church Father
1 Corinthians 15:20
For the sake of all he tasted death. Although by nature he was life and was himself the resurrection, he surrendered his own body to death. By his ineffable power he trampled upon death in his own flesh that he might become the firstborn from the dead and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.… Even if the resurrection of the dead may be said to be through a man, the man we know it is through is the Word begotten of God. The power of death has been destroyed through him.
Cyril of Alexandria· Letter 17.11, 444Church Father
1 Corinthians 15:20
Chrysostom on why Paul keeps saying “from the dead”Homily on 1 Corinthians 39
The longest and best treatment of Paul’s firstfruits logic in the early church, and it is worth reading whole. Chrysostom’s point is that the phrase is repeated deliberately: Paul is talking about bodies, and the repetition is what keeps the argument from being spiritualised into something safer.
"But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them that are asleep." Having signified how great mischiefs are bred from not believing the resurrection, he takes up the discourse again, and says, "But now hath Christ been raised from the dead;" continually adding, "from the dead," so as to stop the mouths of the heretics. "The first-fruits of them that slept." But if their first-fruits, then themselves also, must needs rise again. Whereas if he were speaking of the resurrection from sins, and none is without sin;-for even Paul saith, "I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified;"-how shall there be any who rise again, according to you? Seest thou that his discourse was of bodies? And that he might make it worthy of credit, he continually brings forward Christ who rose again in the flesh. Next he also assigns a reason. For, as I said, when one asserts but does not state the reason, his discourse is not easily received by the multitude.
John Chrysostom· Homily on 1 Corinthians 39, 407Church Father
1 Corinthians 15:20
One Word, Four Subjects
— what the New Testament does with aparche after 1 Corinthians 15The Greek word Paul uses is aparche, and it is doing a lot of work across the New Testament. Christ is the firstfruits of the dead. The Spirit is the firstfruits inbelievers — the first instalment of something not yet handed over in full, which is why Romans 8 has us groaning rather than satisfied. Believers themselves are called a kind of firstfruits of God’s creatures. And in Romans 11 the word turns to Israel.
Four subjects, one word — and in every case the meaning is the same shape: a real beginning that carries a promise about the rest.
And not only they - Not only the creation in general. But ourselves also. Christians. Which have the first-fruits of the Spirit - The word used ἀπαρχὴ aparchē denotes properly the first-fruits of the harvest, the portion that was first collected and consecrated to God as an offering of gratitude, Deu 26:2; Exo 23:19; Num 18:13. Hence, the word means what is first in order of time.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832-1869Presbyterian
Romans 8:23
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.The Spirit as firstfruits — which is precisely why the groaning is not a failure.
It is said in the Epistle of James: "Of his own will he begot us by the Word of truth, that we might be a certain firstfruits of his creatures." Through the Word incarnate there descends to us an abundance of graces.
Bonaventure· Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1, 1257Franciscan
James 1:18
In contrast to "lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin . . . death" (Jas 1:15). Life follows naturally in connection with light (Jas 1:17). word of truth--the Gospel.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
James 1:18
And once more, at the far end of the BibleRevelation 14:4
John uses the same image of the redeemed who follow the Lamb: they are presented as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. It is the last appearance of the picture in Scripture, and it keeps the shape it has had since Leviticus — a first portion lifted up, and a harvest standing behind it.
These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.Purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
Resurrection Morning
— what the Gospels say, and what they do notA great deal of teaching turns on the claim that Jesus rose on the very day the sheaf was waved. It is a striking claim, and there is a real case for it — Jamieson, Fausset & Brown state it directly, twice, in the commentary this page draws from.
The offering of the wave-sheaf sanctified the whole harvest (Ro 11:16). At the same time, this feast had a typical character, and pre-intimated the resurrection of Christ (1Co 15:20), who rose from the dead on the very day the first-fruits were offered.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Leviticus 23:10
The time of writing this Epistle was probably about the Passover (1Co 5:7); the day after the Passover sabbath was that for offering the first-fruits (Le 23:10, 11), and the same was the day of Christ's resurrection: whence appears the appropriateness of the image.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
1 Corinthians 15:20
Where Scripture is silent
No Gospel says “He rose on the day of the sheaf.” The correspondence is drawn by the calendar — and the calendar’s own reckoning is exactly the thing that was disputed in the first century, as the positions above show.
So the page says both halves. The coincidence is real on one well-attested reading of Leviticus 23:11 and is a genuine and beautiful thing to notice. It is not something the New Testament states, and Paul’s claim about Christ never leans on it.
The morrow after the sabbath - After the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was a sabbath or day of rest, as appears from ver. 7, or upon the sixteenth day of the month. And this was the first of those fifty days, in the close whereof was the feast of pentecost.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Wesleyan
Leviticus 23:11
The artwork
This page's other painting is a field being cut; this one is the first morning of the harvest it stands for. Caracciolo paints Mary Magdalene reaching and Christ drawing back — the moment in the garden when the risen Lord tells her not to hold on to Him, because He has not yet ascended to the Father. The pairing is the page's argument in two pictures: a sheaf lifted before God, and the first man out of the grave, on His way up with the rest of the field behind Him.
Battistello Caracciolo, Noli me tangere (1618-20) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Read Further
— the writers quoted above, in their own hands — and where Marcus landsAmong modern teachers, Chuck Missler taught the spring feasts as fulfilled at the first coming with Firstfruits named among them (Learn the Bible in 24 Hours), and Rabbi Jason Sobel reads the same calendar from inside its Jewish setting in Aligning with God’s Appointed Times. Both are worth a reader’s time — and the calendar depth they work in belongs on the feast page still to come rather than here.
One last thing, because it is what the instrument above is really for. Firstfruits is not a picture of something finished. It is a picture of something started, with the rest of it guaranteed and not yet gathered — which is precisely where the church has been standing since that morning.
Homilies on 1 Corinthians
John Chrysostom · 407
Homily 39 is the fullest early treatment of Paul's firstfruits argument, and Chrysostom is relentless about keeping it about bodies.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses
John Calvin · 1554
For the sheaf itself, and for why “handful” is the better rendering of the measure at Leviticus 23:10.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
John Wesley · 1765
Wesley on Leviticus 23:11 is the clearest short statement of the fixed-date reading of “the morrow after the Sabbath.”
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