First-born

First-Born (בּכוֹרָח בּכוֹר, בּכַירָה, from בָּכִר, to ripen early; Sept., and N T. πρωτότοκος,Vulg. prsimogenitus), applied equally to animals and human beings. Among the Hebrews the first-born son had many privileges, to be entitled to which it was not only required that a man should be the first child of his mother, but that he should be, at the same time,-the first son of his father (De 21:15-17). The eldest son received a double portion of the father's inheritance (De 21:17), but not of the mother's (Mishna, Bekoroth, viii; 9)-. If the father had married two wives, of whom he preferred one to the' other, he was forbidden to give precedence to the son of the one if the child of the other were the first-born (De 21:15-16). 'In the case of levirate marriage, the son' of the next brother succeeded to his uncle's vacant inheritance (De 25:5-6). Under the monarchy, the eldest son usually, but not always, s-appears in the case of Solomon, succeeded his father in the kingdom (1Ki 1:30; 1Ki 2:22). That some rights of primogeniture existed in very early times is plain, but it is not so clear in what they consisted. They have been classed as

(a.) authority over the rest of the family (b.) priesthood; (c.).a double portion of the inheritance.

The birthright of Esau and of Reuben, set aside by authority or forfeited by misconduct, prove a general privilege as. well as quasisacredness of primogeniture (Ge 25:23,31,34; Ge 49:3; 1Ch 5:1; Heb 12:16), and a precedence which obviously existed, and is alluded to in various passages (as Ps 89:27; Job 18:13; Roam. 8:29; Col 1:15; Heb 12:23); but the story of Esau's rejection tends to show the supreme. and sacred authority of the parent irrevocable even by himself, rather than inherent right existing in the eldest son, which was evidently not inalienable (Ge 27:29,3,36; Grotius,. Calmet, Patrick, Knobel, on Genesis 25). See Hottinger, Deprimagenilis (Marb. 1711); Schreder, De vett. Hebrm. etprissogeasitis (Msarb. 1741); 'Fabricius, Bibliogr. Antiq. p. 892; Gerdes, De variis locs ismb quibus primogenitorum mentio occurrit (Duisb. 1730); Frischmnuth, De prinmogens-tura (Jan. 1649). See BIRTHRIGHT.