What is the law of first mention?
Answered from the commentary of A. J. Pollock, F. G. Patterson, Michael Vogelsang and 1 other
The law of first mention is the principle that the first mention of a subject in Scripture generally gives its fundamental thought or meaning, often in a brief form that later Scriptures develop. It can therefore be helpful to study where a subject first appears, provided the conclusions drawn are right. The first mention may give a key to what follows, but later revelation can add detail and fuller meaning.
Verses: Genesis 2:16, Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:2, Genesis 3:3, Genesis 3:4, Genesis 3:5, Genesis 3:6, Genesis 3:7, Exodus 20:1, Exodus 20:2, Exodus 20:3, Exodus 20:4, Exodus 20:5, Exodus 20:6, Exodus 20:7, Exodus 20:8, Exodus 20:9, Exodus 20:10, Exodus 20:11, Exodus 20:12, Exodus 20:13, Exodus 20:14, Exodus 20:15, Exodus 20:16, Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 6:6, Deuteronomy 6:7, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 6:9, Matthew 5:17, Matthew 5:18, Matthew 5:19, Matthew 5:20, Romans 5:12, Romans 5:13, Romans 5:14, Romans 7:7, Romans 7:8, Romans 7:9, Romans 7:10, Romans 7:11, Romans 7:12, Romans 7:13, Galatians 3:19, Galatians 3:20, Galatians 3:21, Galatians 3:22, Galatians 3:23, Galatians 3:24, Galatians 3:25
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Genesis is the book which gives us the beginnings of things. A very happily phrased title is given to the first introduction of things in the Scriptures. It is called “The law of first mentions.” These first mentions, generally speaking, present in very few words the essence, the fundamental thought of the divine mind in relation to the subject in hand, to be developed in detail in subsequent Scriptures. In this first mention of Adam and Eve we have a most striking example of this.
Like most principles, and facts unfolded in Scripture: we find that the first intimation of such, generally gives us a key to what afterwards grows from this root into the texture of the Word.
Some argue that even Abraham gave 10 percent to Melchizedek and that was before the law. Generally speaking the ‘law of first mention’ — that is, to find out where in the Bible a thing is mentioned for the first time — is often helpful — so long as we draw the right conclusions. Let us take a closer look at the incident in Genesis 14. In this passage, the first reference to tithing in the Bible, Abram gives to Melchizedek (a priest of God) a tithe of the best of the booty taken in war. Notice that this was not from Abram’s personal possessions, but rather booty taken from conquered nations. Abraham went to war on behalf of Sodom to rescue his nephew, Lot. He then gave 10 percent of these spoils of war to Melchizedek, and allowed Sodom to keep the rest, while he himself kept nothing! And this single, unparalleled and never- to-be-repeated event shall be scriptural proof that Christians should give 10 percent of their annual salaries (not the spoils of war, but their salaries) not once, but year after year after year?
It has often been said that the first mention of any subject in Scripture generally carries with it some special intimation as to its meaning. Let us then turn to Luke 3, where we get the first mention of Baptism historically, though not, of course, as to the order of the books.
To put together the first reference to any subject in Scripture and the last is often very helpful. I think we shall find this to be the case in connection with the Holy Spirit.
is surely a touch that is intended to set forth the love of the Father to the Son. It is noteworthy that it is the first mention of love in the Bible. These first mentions in the Bible are very significant. Does this particular case not set forth the truth that the spring of all God’s actions in grace is found in the gratification of the love that Divine Persons have for each other, rather than in the meeting of the sinner’s need, though most surely including the latter. Does it not put the truth upon a very high platform?
It is deeply interesting to connect this last aspect of the church of God with its first type, with which we began our meditations, when we saw that Adam and Eve were types of Christ and the Church. We then drew attention to “the law of first mentions,” indicating that which is fundamental and of prime importance. Eve was OF Adam. The church is OF Christ. We also drew attention to Isaac and Rebekah as typical of Christ and the church. Isaac walking in the fields at eventide, lifting up his eyes, and behold the camels were coming. Rebekah was about to be his. A moment of supreme joy to him surely.
As an ordinal number, the first, the beginning: - (1) In the highest way, true of God as Creator, Life-Giver, Father, Source of all. (2) Headship. (3) Implies precedency in thought and sovereignty in will: under which together we have counsel, election; promise, grace. (4) Birth.
Now, as an ordinal number, the first, the beginning: He who is in true active energy the beginning, is Creator, Life-giver, Father; counsel and election connect with it; and sovereignty is implied in all of this.
Since Genesis has been well-termed 'the seed-plot of the Bible,' we are not surprised to find that the first intimation in Scripture of the subject appears in Gen. 28:10-22, describing Jacob's dream. Therein he was transported outside his circumstances to witness the purpose of God as to the earth. Four prominent features of the doctrine to be unfolded later received emphasis:
Verses
- Genesis 2:16–1716And Jehovah Elohim commanded Man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou shalt freely eat; 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt certainly die.
- Genesis 3:1–71And the serpent was more crafty than any animal of the field which Jehovah Elohim had made. And it said to the woman, Is it even so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, and ye shall not touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said to the woman, Ye will not certainly die; 5but God knows that in the day ye eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as God, knowing good and evil. 6And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a pleasure for the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to give intelligence; and she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.