FIRST FRUITS (translation of Beb. reslcith, or bikkurini, first, best). That portion of the fruits of the earth, and other natural produce, which, by the usage of the Hebrews and other ancient nations, was offered to the Deity, as an acknowledgment of His supreme dominion, and a recognition of His bounty. (Consult Frazer, Golden. Bough, vol. ii., London, 1890.) Among the Hebrews the institution of first fruits com prised both public and private offerings. The regulations are set forth in the several codes of the Pentateuch. Taking these codes together, the regulations may be summarized as follows: Of the public class there were three principal offerings. The first was at the opening of the corn harvest. On the day after the first day of the Passover. the 16th of the month Nisam sheaf of new corn, which was cut and gathered with much solemnity, was carried to the holy place, and there waved before the alter (Lev.
40 sqq.) ; nor was it permitted to com mence the harvest work till after this solemn acknowledgment of the gift of fruitfulness. Again, at the feast of Pentecost, seven weeks later, two loaves of leavened bread, made from the flour of the new harvest, were waved. with a similar form of worship, before the altar (Ex. xxxiv. 22; Lev. xxiii. 15-17). Thirdly, at the Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month, was held the great feast of the gathered-in harvest, the final acknowledgment of the bounty of God in the fruits of the year (Ex. xxiii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 33-34).
Besides these public offerings of first fruits on the part of the entire people, individual Hebrews were bound to private offerings, each upon his own behalf. A cake of the first dough, one-twen ty-fourth of the amount, was to be offered to the Lord (Nunn, xv. 21). The 'first of all the fruits' were to be placed in a basket, and carried to the appointed place, where the basket was to be offered with a prescribed formula, commemo rative of the sojourn of Israel in Egypt, and of his deliverance by the strong hand (Dent. xxvi. 2 sig.). Fruit-trees were given three years for growing, then the fruit of the fourth year was to be given to God (Lev. xix. 23-25). All these offerings were divided into two classes—the first, which were called bikkarim, comprised the various kinds of raw produce, of which, although the law seems to contemplate all fruits, seven sorts only were considered by the rabbis to fall under the obligation of first-fruit offering—viz.: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. He who lived near Jerusalem brought fresh fruits; others could bring them dried. It was customary for offerers to make their obla tions in companies of twenty-four„ and with a singularly striking and effective ceremonial. The second class, the reshith, were brought of pre pared materials, dough, wine, oil, etc. The tern moth were taxes consisting in the first ripe of the fruit, whether of the ground or of trees, levied for the support of the priests. There was no
definite amount. Between one-fortieth and one sixtieth of the harvest could be given, but it does not appear that this regulation was ever strictly carried out except by a small minority of pious devotees, just as various other provisions of the Priestly Code remained a dead letter. With the destruction of the second temple. all offerings and sacrifices were abolished, though among orthodox Jews, as a reminiscence of the tensple cult, a portion of the dough for baking bread is still thrown into the fire.
Offerings analogous to the Jewish first fruits became usual very early in the Christian Church, as is clear from a passage in (A.dr. 11(vr. iv., 17 and 34) ; but the extent to which they prevailed, and the amount and general character of the oblation, are exceedingly uncertain. It appears to have been merged in the legal pro vision established by the emperors.
The mediaeval ecclesiastical impost known un der the name of primitur, or first fruits. and sometimes of annates or annalia, was entirely different. By the word, in its mediaeval and mod ern sense, is meant a tax imposed by the popes on persons presented directly by the Pope to those benefices which. by the canonical rules, or in vir tue of privileges claimed by them, fall within the Papal patronage. Persons so presented were re quired to contribute to the Roman See the first fruits (that is, the income of the first year) of their benefice. During the residence of the popes at Avignon, when the Papal necessities com pelled the use of every means for eking out a pre carious revenue, it was sought to extend the im post to every benefice; and this claim was the subiect of many contests, especially in Germany and in England, where the claim. so far as re garde() direct Papal presentation, had existed from the reign of King -lohn. Henry V111. with drew the right of the first fruits from the Pope, iu order to transfer it to the King; and he estab lished a special court for the administration of first fruits, which, however, was soon abandoned. In the reign of Anne, the revenues arising from this impost in England were vested in a board, to be applied for the purpose of supplementing the incomes of small benefices. In France this tax abolished by the `pragmatic sanction' enacted at Bourges in 14:38, and subsequently by the concordat of Leo X. with Francis 1. in 1516. In Spain it ceased partially in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and tinnily under Charles V. In Germany it formed one of the first among the rentum gravamina presented to the Emperor in 1521, and the claim ceased altogether from that period. Consult the Hebrew Arelneologies of Nowack (Freiburg, 1894) and Benninger 1394 ) ; Robertson SuiitIt. Religion of the Semites (London, 1894). See FutsTnoax.