'First' in the Bible

leave your gift there before the altar, and go and make friends with your brother first, and then return and proceed to offer your gift.

Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.

Another of the disciples said to Him, "Sir, allow me first to go and bury my father."

Now the names of the twelve Apostles were these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zabdi, and his brother John;

Again, how can any one enter the house of a strong man and carry off his goods, unless first of all he masters and secures the strong man: then he will ransack his house.

Then he goes and brings back with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they come in and dwell there; and in the end that man's condition becomes worse than it was at first. So will it be also with the present wicked generation."

but during the night his enemy comes, and over the first seed he sows darnel among the wheat, and goes away.

Leave both to grow together until the harvest, and at harvest-time I will direct the reapers, Collect the darnel first, and make it up into bundles to burn it, but bring all the wheat into my barn.'"

"Why then," asked the disciples, "do the Scribes say that Elijah must first come?"

"However, lest we cause them to sin, go and throw a hook into the Lake, and take the first fish that comes up. When you open its mouth, you will find a shekel in it: bring that coin and give it to them for yourself and me."

"But many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.

"When evening came, the master said to his steward, "'Call the men and pay them their wages. Begin with the last set and finish with the first.'

and when the first came, they expected to get more, but they also each got the shilling.

"So the last shall be first, and the first last."

and whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant;

Which of the two did as his father desired?" "The first," they said. "I solemnly tell you,' replied Jesus, "that the tax-gatherers and the notorious sinners are entering the Kingdom of God in front of you.

Again he sent another party of servants more numerous than the first; and these they treated in the same manner.

Blind Pharisee, first wash clean the inside of the cup or dish, and then the outside will be clean also.

I tell you in solemn truth that the present generation will certainly not pass away without all these things having first taken place.

On the first day of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus with the question, "Where shall we make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

So give orders for the sepulchre to be securely guarded till the third day, for fear his disciples should come by night and steal the body, and then tell the people that he has come back to life; and so the last imposture will be more serious than the first."

After the Sabbath, in the early dawn of the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre.

Nay, no one can go into a strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house.

Of itself the land produces the crop-- first the blade, then the ear; afterwards the perfect grain is seen in the ear.

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews--being, as they are, zealous for the traditions of the Elders--never eat without first carefully washing their hands,

and when they come from market they will not eat without bathing first; and they have a good many other customs which they have received traditionally and cling to, such as the rinsing of cups and pots and of bronze utensils, and the washing of beds.)

"Let the children first eat all they want," He said; "it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

And now for the first time He told them, "The Son of Man must endure much suffering, and be rejected by the Elders and the High Priests and the Scribes, and be put to death, and after two days rise to life."

They also asked Him, "How is it that the Scribes say that Elijah must first come?"

"Elijah," He replied, "does indeed come first and reforms everything; but how is it that it is written of the Son of Man that He will endure much suffering and be held in contempt?

Then sitting down He called the Twelve, and said to them, "If any one wishes to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."

He replied, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman, commits adultery against the first wife;

But many who are now first will be last, and the last, first."

The other ten, hearing of it, were at first highly indignant with James and John.

and whoever desires to be first among you must be the bondservant of all.

For those will be times of suffering the like of which has never been from the first creation of God's world until now, and assuredly never will be again;

I tell you in solemn truth that the present generation will certainly not pass away without all these things having first taken place.

On the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread--the day for killing the Passover lamb--His disciples asked Him, "Where shall we go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

So, very soon after sunrise on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb;

But He rose to life early on the first day of the week, and appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom He had expelled seven demons.

It was the first registration made during the governorship of Quirinius in Syria;

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

"Follow me," He said to another. "Master," the man replied, "allow me first to go and bury my father."

"Master," said yet another, "I will follow you; but allow me first to go and say good-bye to my friends at home."

"Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house!'

Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more malignant than itself, and they enter and dwell there; and in the end that man's condition becomes worse than it was at first.

Meanwhile the people had come streaming towards Him by tens of thousands, so that they were trampling one another under foot. And now He proceeded to say to His disciples first, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is to say, beware of hypocrisy.

And I tell you that some now last will then be first, and some now first will then be last."

"But they all without exception began to excuse themselves. The first told him, "'I have purchased a piece of land, and must of necessity go and look at it. Pray hold me excused.'

"Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not sit down first and calculate the cost, asking if he has the means to finish it? --

Or what king, marching to encounter another king in war, does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the one who is advancing against him with twenty thousand?

"So he called all his master's debtors, one by one, and asked the first, 'How much are you in debt to my master?'

But first He must endure much suffering, and be rejected by the present generation.

"So the first came and said, "'Sir, your pound has produced ten pounds more.'

Now there were seven brothers. The first of them took a wife and died childless.

But when you hear of wars and turmoils, be not afraid; for these things must happen first, but the end does not come immediately."

I tell you in solemn truth that the present generation will certainly not pass away without all these things having first taken place.

But they violently insisted. "He stirs up the people," they said, "throughout all Judaea with His teaching--even from Galilee (where He first started)

And, on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices they had prepared.

He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah!" --that is to say, the Anointed One.

and said to him, "It is usual to put on the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then that which is inferior. But you have kept the good wine till now."

This, the first of His miracles, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee, and thus displayed His glorious power; and His disciples believed in Him.

"Does our Law," he asked, "judge a man without first hearing what he has to say and ascertaining what his conduct is?"

When however they persisted with their question, He raised His head and said to them, "Let the sinless man among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

Then He went away again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John had been baptizing at first; and there He stayed.

If the world hates you, remember that it has first had me as the fixed object of its hatred.

And you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the first.

But I have spoken these things to you in order that when the time for their accomplishment comes you may remember them, and may recollect that I told you. I did not, however, tell you all this at first, because I was still with you.

They then brought Him to Annas first; for Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was High Priest that year.

Accordingly the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and also of the other who had been crucified with Jesus.

Nicodemus too--he who at first had visited Jesus by night--came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, in weight about seventy or eighty pounds.

On the first day of the week, very early, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from it.

Then the other disciple, who had been the first to come to the tomb, also went in and saw and was convinced.

On that same first day of the week, when it was evening and, for fear of the Jews, the doors of the house where the disciples were, were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you!"

It is to you first that God, after raising His Servant from the grave, has sent Him to bless you, by causing every one of you to turn from your wickedness."

When, however, Jacob heard that there was wheat to be had, he sent our forefathers into Egypt; that was the first time.

"And," said Peter, "no sooner had I begun to speak than the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He fell upon us at the first.

"If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, why, who was I to be able to thwart God?"

He succeeded, and brought him to Antioch; and for a whole year they attended the meetings of the Church, and taught a large number of people. And it was in Antioch that the disciples first received the name of 'Christians.'

And passing through the first ward and the second, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. This opened to them of itself; and, going out, they passed on through one of the streets, and then suddenly the angel left him.

Then, throwing off all reserve, Paul and Barnabas said, "We were bound to proclaim God's Message to you first. But since you spurn it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of the Life of the Ages--well, we turn to the Gentiles.

Symeon has related how God first looked graciously on the Gentiles to take from among them a People to be called by His name.

and thence to Philippi, which is a city in Macedonia, the first in its district, a Roman colony. And there we stayed some little time.

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed?" he asked them. "No," they replied, "we did not even hear that there is a Holy Spirit."

On the first day of the week, when we had met to break bread, Paul, who was going away the next morning, was preaching to them, and prolonged his discourse till midnight.

Upon their arrival he said to them, "You Elders well know, from the first day of my setting foot in the province of Asia, the kind of life I lived among you the whole time,

but I proceeded to preach first to the people in Damascus, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and to the Gentiles, that they must repent and turn to God, and live lives consistent with such repentance.

since the Christ was to be a suffering Christ, and by coming back from the dead was then to be the first to proclaim a message of light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

But their Captain, bent on securing Paul's safety, kept them from their purpose and gave orders that those who could swim should first jump overboard and get to land;

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for what He has done for all of you; for the report of your faith is spreading through the whole world.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News. It is God's power which is at work for the salvation of every one who believes--the Jew first, and then the Gentile.

coming upon the soul of every man and woman who deliberately does wrong--upon the Jew first, and then upon the Gentile;

whereas glory, honour and peace will be given to every one who does what is good and right--to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

The privilege is great from every point of view. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's truth.

But again, did Israel fail to understand? Listen to Moses first. He says, "I will fire you with jealousy against a nation which is no nation, and with fury against a nation devoid of understanding."

"Who has first given God anything, so as to receive payment in return?"

Carry out these injunctions because you know the critical period at which we are living, and that it is now high time, to rouse yourselves from sleep; for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first became believers.

I hope, as soon as ever I extend my travels into Spain, to see you on my way and be helped forward by you on my journey, when I have first enjoyed being with you for a time.

for, in the first place, when you meet as a Church, there are divisions among you. This is what I am told, and I believe that there is some truth in it.

And by God's appointment there are in the Church--first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly teachers. Then come miraculous powers, and then ability to cure diseases or render loving service, or powers of organization, or varieties of the gift of 'tongues.'