In reading Hebrews 12:23 in another language, I noticed that “firstborn” is in the plural. Does it refer to the Christians in the church?<\/p>\n\t
One of the interesting results of studying with people with different backgrounds is that things will be pointed out that you never considered before. In English, “firstborn” is used for both singular and plural cases. Since Jesus is the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), I always understood this as another way of saying “church of Christ.” Your question prompted me to double-check the Greek text, and I realized I was mistaken.<\/p>\n
“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven<\/strong>, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:22-24).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Jesus is the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:6; Psalms 89:27). His followers are made joint heirs with him through their adoption as children of God (Romans 8:17,29; Galatians 4:1-7; Hosea 1:10). In Hebrews 12:23, “firstborn” is in the plural. It refers not to a single person, but a group of people who are considered firstborn.<\/p>\n
The phrasing alludes back to the Old Testament, where the firstborn were initially selected to be God’s priests (Exodus 13:2 11-16). Israel itself was referred to as God’s firstborn (Exodus 4:22). In the New Testament, Christians are described as the chosen firstborn who are priests for God (I Peter 2:9). Unlike the Israelites, who were enrolled on earth under Moses (Numbers 3:40), Christians are enrolled in heaven.<\/p>\n
Thus, we are discussing the church composed of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In reading Hebrews 12:23 in another language, I noticed that “firstborn” is in the plural. Does it refer to the Christians in the church? Answer: One of the interesting results of studying with people with different backgrounds is that things will be pointed out that you never considered before. In English, “firstborn” is used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1852,76],"class_list":["post-89689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-firstborn","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-firstborns-only-male\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":0},"title":"Are firstborns only male?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: in Exodus 11:5 it says that every firstborn son in Egypt will die, does that mean if the firstborn is a daughter and the second born is a son, then the son would die but not the daughter even though she's really the firstborn?\u00a0 Also in Exodus 34:19, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32761,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-still-need-to-redeem-our-firstborn\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":1},"title":"Do we still need to redeem our firstborn?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the Bible still expect us to redeem our firstborn with offering in the New Testament? Answer: Jesus is the one and only sacrifice in the New Testament. \"By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all\" (Hebrews 10:10).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5177,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-jesus-created-since-he-is-the-firstborn-of-creation\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":2},"title":"Was Jesus created since he is the firstborn of creation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Throughout the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit and Jesus are mentioned. For clarity, I wanted to know if the Holy Spirit and Jesus were created by God or were they ever in existence. Many people use the analogy that all three are of one body, but the Bible says that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-exodus-2228-29-talking-about-child-sacrifice\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":3},"title":"Is Exodus 22:29 talking about child sacrifice?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Exodus 22:29, is God allowing child sacrifice? I'm sure that's not what's present here, and I'm taking it as them becoming a part of the priesthood. If correct, are there other verses that can cover this idea? Answer: Human communication relies heavily on implications. We don't say everything.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-redemption-laws-only-apply-to-firstborn-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":4},"title":"Do the redemption laws only apply to firstborn sons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your article on\u00a0Jephthah's vow, you used the verses Exodus 13:2, 12-15 that all firstborn children belong to God, and as such Jephthah couldn't redeem her. But I've heard commentaries saying that these verses only talked about males. Is there something I'm missing in this? Thanks in advance and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69837,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-idea-of-redemption-confuses-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":89689,"position":5},"title":"The idea of redemption confuses me","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi there, I'm reading through the Bible for the first time. I'm up to Numbers 18 and was confused by verses 14-16. For reference (I'm using an NIV, but I might switch to ESV sometime): \"Everything in Israel that is devoted to the Lord is yours. The first offspring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}