Firstfruits

This word has a wide variety of applications in the Scriptures.  It may mean the first of the crops to be harvested, a section of the land’s wealth that was specifically dedicated to Yahweh.  We read of that usage here: “And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you.  On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.’” (Lev 23:9-11)

The firstfruits were also a type of Christ.  As the first, and best, of the harvest, Yahshua represented the “last Adam,” who would overcome where the former had failed, (1Cor 15:45) and in so doing bring with Him a “harvest” from the earth. (Rev 14:15, 16)  Because of the “type/antitype” symbolism applied from the firstfruits to Christ, we are given the ability to clear up the length of time that Yahshua was in the grave, avoiding the “third day” vs. “three days and three nights” controversy altogether, understanding both of these to simply be different, idiomatic ways of saying the same thing.  Paul writes of Christ, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1Cor 15:3, 4)

There are no “Scriptures” that speak specifically about a human rising again on a third day.  The only way we can understand this is to look for a symbol that represents Christ, and fortunately it is Paul himself who supplies it, writing in that very chapter that, “Christ [is] risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1Cor 15:20)  Going to the Old Testament to see what we can see about “firstfruits” and a “third day,” we read that on the “morrow after the Sabbath,” the “third day” (inclusive) from the Passover, the “wave sheaf” of the firstfruits was offered to Yah. (Lev 23:15)

The historian Josephus, who lived at the time of Christ, reveals that this was indeed done on the 16^th of Nisan, three inclusive days after the Passover on the 14^th. [Antiquities of The Jews, Book III, Chapter X, Paragraph 5]

So the Firstfruits may be the literal first part of the harvest.  It may symbolically be applied to Christ.  It may also, in a third sense, be applied to individuals who are worthy examples for others to follow.  Paul commends a Church member by calling him “wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” (Rom 16:5)  In another epistle he compliments “the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia” (1Cor 16:15) In Revelation, the prophet sees the 144,000 as “the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Rev 14:4) In all these cases, the connotations of this word include primary, excellent, the very best of all that may be offered.