The First Prime: 1 or 2?
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2026 4:10 pm
Modern mathematicians have settled on the idea that the number 2 is the first prime. There are very good reasons for this choice. Here's a brief summary:
1. Many definitions and theorems would become needlessly complicated and awkward (and certainly less beautiful) with "except for 1" if we included the number 1 as prime. For example, the current definition of the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (Unique Factorization Theorem) says "Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors)". We would have to modify that to say ""Every integer greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization (up to ordering of factors and not counting powers of 1)."
2. In ring theory / abstract algebra the situation becomes even clearer: 1 is the multiplicative unit (the neutral element for multiplication). Units are deliberately not regarded as prime or irreducible in any ring, because they trivialize too much of the structure. Mathematicians have identified three classes of numbers: Units (invertible elements: e.g. +/- 1 in Z), Primes, Compositions.
Now it's true that we could choose to define 1 as prime and just modify our definitions and theorems, but that's not elegant and elegance is a primary aspect of beauty, and beauty is an aspect of truth. The best mathematicians have a strong instinct that recognized both beauty and simplicity.
Now consider this: God is the greatest possible mathematician. Would he not follow the principles of beauty, simplicity, elegance and truth that He used to design the universe? I think this should settle the issue. Grok summarized these points for me in the image below.
But here's another reason: Genesis 1:1 = 37 x 73, a pair of mirrored primes (God is a big fan of symmetry, which is fundamental to the laws of nature that He designed). When 2 is counted as the first prime, then the indexes of 37 and 73 are also 12 and 21, which are also mirrors of each other. This feels deep, especially when we recall that the numbers 37 and 73 are a hex/star pair created by the symmetric self-intersection of tenth triangle T(10) with it's mirrored inverse of itself: