[ Prototokos ]  Primogenitus, "First-born"

 [ Prototokos ] and Primogenitus are not exact equivalents, though Homer may use [ tikto ] for gigno . Primogenitus is never used in Scripture for Unigenitus. We never read there of the First-born of God, of the Father; but of the First-born of the creation, whether of the original creation or of the new.

 First-born, or the beginning, is used as an epithet of our Lord five times in Scripture, and in each case it is distinct in meaning from Only-begotten. It is a word of office, not of nature. 1. St. Paul speaks of His becoming, in His incarnation, the "First-born among many brethren," Rom. viii. 29; and he connects this act of mercy with their being conformed to His Image, and gifted with grace and glory. 2. He is "the First-born of the dead," Apoc. i. 5. 3. As also in Col. i. 18. 4. Col. i. 15. "The First-born of all creation," as quasi the efficient and the formal cause whereby the universe is born into a divine adoption. 5. St. Paul speaks of the Father's "bringing the First-born into the world." To these may be added, Apoc. iii. 14, "the beginning of the [new] creation of God." In none of these passages does the phrase "First-born of God" occur.

 Our Lord is in three distinct respects [ prototokos ], First-born or Beginning, as the animating Presence of the Universe, as the Life of the Christian Church, as the first-fruit and pledge and earnest of the Resurrection.

 The word never intimates in Scripture His divine nature itself. "It is nowhere written of Him in the Scriptures 'the First-born of God,' nor 'the creation of God,' but it is the words 'the Only-begotten,' and 'Son,' and 'Word,' and 'Wisdom,' that signify His relation and His belonging to the Father. But 'First-born' implies descent to the creation ... The same cannot be both Only-begotten and First-born, except in different relations; that is, Only-begotten, because of His generation from the Father, and First-born, because of His condescension to the creation, and to the brotherhood which He has extended to many." Orat. ii. § 62.

 In like manner Augustine says that we must distinguish between the two titles "Only-begotten and First-born," that the Son may be with the Father Only-begotten, and Firstborn towards us. vid. the author's Theol. Tracts, Arianism, § 9, circ. fin. And St. Thomas says, "In quantum solus est verus et naturalis Dei Filius, dicitur Unigenitus, ... in quantum vero per assimilationem ad ipsum alii dicuntur filii adoptivi, quasi metaphoricè dicitur esse Primogenitus." Part I. 41, art. 3 (t. 20).

 It would be perhaps better to translate "first-born to the creature," to give Athan.'s idea; [ tes ktiseos ] not being a partitive genitive, or [ prototokos ] a superlative, (though he so considers it also,) but a simple appellative and [ tes ktiseos ] a common genitive of relation, as "the king of a country," "the owner of a house." "First-born of creation" is like "author, type, life of creation." As, after calling our Lord in His own nature "a light," we might proceed to say that He was also "a light to the creation," or "Arch-luminary," so He was not only the Eternal Son, but a "Son to creation," an "archetypal Son." Hence St. Paul goes on at once to say, "for in Him all things were made," not simply "by and for," as at the end of the verse; or as Athan. says, Orat. ii. § 63, "because in Him the creation came to be." On the distinction of [ dia ] and [ en ], referring respectively to the first and second creations, vid. In illud Omn. 2.

 "His coming into the world," says Athan., "is what makes Him called 'First-born' of all; and thus the Son is the Father's 'Only-begotten,' because He alone is from Him, and He is the 'First-born of creation,' because of this adoption of all as sons." Thus he considers that "first-born" is mainly a title, connected with the incarnation, and also connected with our Lord's office at the creation. (vid. parallel of Priesthood, art. in voc .) In each economy it has the same meaning; it belongs to Him as the type, idea, or rule on which the creature was made or new-made, and the life by which it is sustained. Both economies are mentioned, Incarn. 13, 14. And so [ eikon kai tupos pros areten ], Orat. i. 51. (vid. art. Freedom, supr. p. 127.) And [ tupon tina labontes ] and [ hypogrammon ], iii. 20. vid. also 21. [ en autoi emen protetupomenoi ]. ii. 76, init. He came [ tupon eikonos entheinai ]. 78, init. [ ten tou archetupon plasin anastesasthai heautoi ]. contr. Apol. ii. 5. Also [ katesphragisthemen eis to archetupon tes eikonos ]. Cyr. in Joan. v. 12, p. 91. [ hoion apo tinos arches ], Nyss. Catech. 16, p. 504, fin. And so again, as to the original creation, the Word is [ idea kai energeia ] of all material things. Athen. Leg. 10. [ he idea ... hoper logon eirekasi ]. Clem. Strom. v. 3. [ idean ideon kai archen lekteon ton prototokon pases ktiseos ]. Origen. contr. Cels. vi. 64, fin. "Whatever God was about to make in the creature, was already in the Word, nor would be in the things, were it not in the Word." August. in Psalm. 44, 5. He elsewhere calls the Son, "ars quædam omnipotentis atque sapientis Dei, plena omnium rationum viventium incommutabilium." de Trin. vi. 11. And so Athan. says [ prototokos eis apodeixin tes ton panton dia tou huiou demiourgias kai huiopoieseos ]. iii. 9, fin. vid. the contrast presented to us by the Semi-Arian Eusebius on the passage which Athan. is discussing, (Prov. viii. 22,) as making the Son, not the [ idea ], but the external minister of the Father's [ idea ] (in art. Eusebius, supra). S. Cyril says on the contrary, "The Father shows the Son what He does Himself, not as if setting it before Him drawn out on a tablet, or teaching Him as ignorant; for He knows all things as God; but as depicting Himself whole in the nature of the Offspring," etc., in Joann. v. 20, p. 222.