Lexical Summary aparchē: the beginning of a sacrifice, the first fruit Original Word: ἀπαρχήTransliteration: aparchē Phonetic Spelling: (ap-ar-khay') Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine Short Definition: the beginning of a sacrifice, the first fruit Meaning: the beginning of a sacrifice, the first fruit Strong's Concordance firstfruits. From a compound of apo and archomai; a beginning of sacrifice, i.e. The (Jewish) first-fruit (figuratively) -- first-fruits. see GREEK apo see GREEK archomai Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 536: ἀπαρχήἀπαρχή, ἀπαρχῆς, ἡ (from ἀπάρχομαι: a. to offer firstlings or first-fruits; b. to take away the first-fruits; cf. ἀπό in ἀποδεκατόω), in the Sept. generally equivalent to רֵאשִׁית; the first-fruits of the productions of the earth (both those in a natural state and those prepared for use by hand), which were offered to God; cf. Winers RWB under the word Erstlinge (BB. DD. under the word b. of persons superior in excellence to others of the same class: so in Revelation 14:4 of a certain class of Christians sacred and dear to God and Christ beyond all others (Schol. ad Euripides, Or. 96 ἀπαρχή ἐλέγετο οὐ μόνον πρῶτον τῇ τάξει, ἀλλά καί τό πρῶτον τῇ τιμή). c. οἱ ἔχοντες τήν ἀπαρχήν τοῦ πνεύματος who have the first-fruits (of future blessings) in the Spirit (τοῦ πνεύματος is genitive of apposition), Romans 8:23; cf. what Winer § 50, 8 a. says in opposition to those (e. g. Meyer, but see Weiss in edition 6) who take τοῦ πνεύματος as a partitive genitive, so that οἱ ἔχοντες τήν ἀπαρχήν τοῦ πνεύματος are distinguished from the great multitude who will receive the Spirit subsequently. (In Greek writings from (Sophocles) Herodotus down.) |