Definition of "firstborn" []

• First in order of birth; born first. (adjective)
• The child in a family who is born first. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Because of that, as St. John the Theologian wrote, Christ was the firstborn from the dead."
• "Although in the Revelation by St. John the Theologian it is written that Jesus was the firstborn from the world of the dead (Revelation 1: 5), the resurrection of Jesus is neither the only, nor the first Biblical resurrection."
• "For the Father of the universe has caused him to spring up as the eldest son, whom, in another passage, he calls the firstborn; and he who is thus born, imitating the ways of his Father, has formed such and such species humankind, looking to his archetypal patterns."