First-fruits (Heb. reshith; Gr. prōtogennēmata, and aparchai; Lat. primitiae), that portion of the fruits of the earth and other natural produce which, by the usage of the Jews and other ancient nations, was offered to God as an acknowledgment of his supreme dominion, and as a thanksgiving for his bounty. Among the Jews the institution of first-fruits comprised both public and private offerings. Of the former the three principal were made at the opening of the corn-harvest, at the Feast of Pentecost, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. The private offerings made by individual Jews were a cake of the first dough of the year and the 'first of all the fruits.' All these offerings were divided into two classes: Bievrin, comprising the various kinds of raw produce, of which, although the law seems to contemplate all fruits, seven sorts only were considered by the Jewish doctors to fall under the obligation of first-fruit offering—viz. wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates; and Terumoth, or the produce of the year in the various forms in which it is prepared for human use, as wine, wool, bread, oil, date-honey, dried onions, and cucumbers.
Offerings analogous to the Jewish first-fruits became usual very early in the Christian church, as is clear from a passage in Irenæus, but appear to have been merged in the legal provision established by the emperors. The medieval ecclesiastical impost known under the name of primitiae or first-fruits, and sometimes of annates or annalia, was entirely different. See ANNATES.