A similar transfer appears in 1 Chronicles 5:1–2 where, although the tribe of Judah prevailed above their brethren, nevertheless the birthright (the double portion of two tribal allotments) was Joseph's.
[10] The understanding of Israel as the national firstborn of God is found in the Dead Sea scrolls 1Q/4Q "Instruction," and probably 4Q369 the "Prayer of Enosh",[11] as well as in Ben Sira.
In the pseudepigraphical Testament of Abraham disease is personified as the prototokos "firstborn" of Thanatos, the personification of death.
[14] Philo of Alexandria comments on the inheritance rites of the firstborn in Deuteronomy, greatly emphasizing and embellishing the superiority of Mosaic Law over Egyptian models.
Besides receiving double the father's inheritance and requiring a pidyon haben, a firstborn son is supposed to fast on the eve of Passover[18] and in the absence of a Levite, a bechor washes the hands of the Kohen prior to blessing the Israelites (see: Priestly Blessing).
In rabbinical Hebrew, the masculine noun bechor is also used of the first born animal to open the womb of its mother.
The animal "firstborn beast" (Hebrew bechor behema בכור בהמה) is listed as one of the twenty-four priestly gifts.