Footnote

a Such a thought of auto-resurrection or self-resurrection is expressed in paragraph 1 of column 2 on page 570 of volume 3 of M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopœdia. Discussing the subject of “First-born,” it says: “The expression ‘firstborn’ is not always to be understood literally; it is sometimes taken for the prime, most excellent, most distinguished of things. Thus ‘Jesus Christ’ is ‘the first-born of every creature, the first-begotten, or first-born from the dead,’ begotten of the Father before any creature was produced; the first who rose from the dead by his own power (see Journal of Sacred Literature, April 1861).”