Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-26862866-20170116113041/@comment-3965545-20170116202612

Prime Hiruzen is confirmed to be at the least tied with Hashirama, while being confirmed to surpass Tobirama at a young age. He is also the only Shinobi after Hashirama to ever get the God of Shinobi title.. which I would assume is not about just power, but about intelligence and experience too. Hiruzen in his prime was never given a chance to be shown, BUT we are told about him by the author so we have to take what the author says. So Prime Hiruzen at the least = Hashirama. Old Hiruzen is no pushover either though considering Orochimaru had two Edo's with him and still couldn't kill him or defeat him.. in fact Oro was getting beaten near the end.