Why is Jesus called “the Firstborn”?

St. John Chrysostom calls the Lord our Firstborn because He gave Himself up as an acceptable sacrifice without blemish, which the Father willingly accepted, and so humanity came to be accepted in Him and sanctified in Him. The Firstborn is distinguished by being the one who precedes all, is superior to all, and is consecrated to God; through Him, the whole harvest is sanctified. Chronologically, the Lord Christ was not the first to rise from the dead. Before Him, there was the man who rose from the dead upon contact with the bones of Elisha the prophet (2 Kings 13:21), and the Lord Christ Himself raised the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:41–42), among others. But all of these rose but later died again. As for the Savior, He rose by His own authority. He is the first spike of grain to mature, which the priest waves before the Lord proclaiming that it is holy to God, and by which all the harvest is sanctified.

Pope Athanasius the Apostolic says, “But if He is also called ‘First-born of the creation,’ still this is not as if He were the same as the creatures, and only first of them in point of time (for how should that be, since He is ‘Only-begotten?’), but it is because of the Word’s condescension to the creatures, according to which He has become the ‘Brother’ of ‘many.’ For the term ‘Only-begotten’ is used where there are no brethren, but ‘First-born’ because of brethren … if He be really First-born, then He is not Only-begotten. For the same

755 Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on The Song of Songs , eds., Brian E. Daley S. J., and John T. Fitzgerald, trans., Richard A. Norris Jr. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) Homily 2: p. 69.

756 St. Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.9 (ANF 2:231) amended.

cannot be both Only-begotten and First-born, except in different relations;—that is, Onlybegotten, because of His generation from the Father, as has been said; and First-born, because of His condescension to the creation and His making the many His brethren … the word ‘First-born’ has again the creation as a reason in connection with it, which Paul proceeds to say, ‘for in Him all things were created’ (Col. 1:16). But if all the creatures were created in Him, He is other than the creatures, and is not a creature, but the Creator of the creatures.”⁷⁵⁷

St. Cyril the Great says, “‘he tasted death on behalf of every man’ (Heb. 2:9), in his flesh which was able to suffer without him ceasing to be life. Accordingly, even though it is stated that he suffered in his flesh, he did not receive the suffering in the nature of his divinity, but, as I said just now, in his own flesh which was receptive of suffering.”⁷⁵⁸ He also says, “when the divine Scriptures call Him Firstborn, they immediately also add of whom He is the firstborn, and assign the cause of His bearing this title: for they say, ‘Firstborn among many brethren:’ and ‘Firstborn from the dead:’ the one, because He was made like unto us in all things except sin; and the other, because He first raised up His own flesh unto incorruption.”⁷⁵⁹

And St. Ambrose says, “So, then, as the firstfruits of death were in Adam, so also the firstfruits of the resurrection are in Christ.”⁷⁶⁰