EARNEST (NT ἀρραβών, G775). The word came into Gr. from a Sem. language, perhaps from the vocabulary of Phoen. traders. Hebrew has the word עֵרָבﯴן, H6860, associated with the verb עָרַב֒, H6842, which usually means “take” or “give in pledge.” The noun is used three times in Genesis 38:17-20 (the only LXX use of ἀρραβών, G775) for Judah’s pledge given to Tamar that she would receive her hire. Right down to modern Gr., where ἀρραβών, G775, is used for an engagement ring, the word is used for a pledge in a contract.

In a derived sense an ἀρραβών, G775, in a commercial transaction came to be a down payment, as in the modern hire-purchase system (some good examples are given in MM). Both meanings, pledge and first installment, are involved in each of the three NT uses of the word. 2 Corinthians 1:22 speaks of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit as the pledge and foretaste of what the Christian will enjoy later (significantly the word “seal” is also used in the context). 2 Corinthians 5:5 similarly says that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of that fullness of life which the Christian will enjoy after the dissolution of his earthly “tent.” The Holy Spirit of promise is the earnest of the inheritance (Eph 1:14) which the Christian will finally receive. The earnest, as Behm (in TWNT) puts it, “always implies an act which engages to something bigger”; it is a pledge or deposit guaranteeing that a larger payment will be made.