Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

I have always wondered what the Bible meant by Jesus being the first born from the dead. In the Gospels, Jesus raised several people from the dead, they came back to life and was raised from the dead before Jesus died and was raised to life on the third day. What I think the text means is that although there are others who was raised back to life before Jesus was brought back to life, the difference is that Jesus was raised to life under His own Power. Jesus being God Almighty in the flesh used His own divine power to come back to life from death. The others who came back to life had to depend on God to raise them back to life. Jesus raised Himself using His own power. This is proven in John 10:18 (No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. ) this is as close as I can come to getting a grip on what Jesus being the first born from the dead meant. Lee