The effect and purpose of the seal are defined by this Greek word, “arrabon” that is translated “earnest”, “pledge”, or “guarantee”. This Greek variant of the ancient term is extant in various papyri and ostraca, where it sometimes takes on the meaning of “deposit,” “earnest money,” or “down payment.” We find it also in Aristotle’s Politics (1.11). It is a popular view and was once accepted by this writer. However, we question that this is the way the word was used in the New Testament.
Fee wrote, “It is well known that commerce tends to dominate the transmission of culture across geographical divides and ethnic lines. It is the merchants, arriving from afar, who chiefly barter the achievements and accouterments of diverse civilizations; it is businessmen who tie the world together. Consequently, shared words and phrases by different languages are derived from commerce and trade. The ancient Akkadians in Mesopotamia used the term in the beginning of the second millennium BC and the invaders from the Caucasus adopted the term, along with the Israelites who brought the word with them to the western side of the Fertile Crescent. The Phonecians took it from there into Carthage, where it spread to Spain. Of course, Rome also adopted the term as did the Arabians. Mutual trust was of great importance to the ancient businessmen who transported goods from caravans on the trade routes and from the Mediterranean ships. Men would risk the loss of great fortunes on the word of another who guaranteed delivery.”
The world in which Paul lived knew about the concept of the “arrabon” and traveling on merchant ships carrying supplies to thriving ports of the Agean and Mediterranean introduced the idea in his own writing. Interpreters are not in agreement about whether Paul meant to use the word to convey the idea of future possession of the inheritance or of a present relationship that is guaranteed. I’d prefer to emphasize the latter since it relates to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit at that time. This word and its use in Paul’s day Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22,
Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (arrabon)”.
Using the same commercial term, he wrote later in the same epistle of “God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (5:5). Some four years or so later, Paul wrote, “you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee (arrabon) of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13–14). With his businessman’s approach to the faith, it is not surprising that Paul described the Holy Spirit as God’s seal that “guarantees” possession of the inheritance promised to his children.
The meaning of the word translated “earnest” is most difficult to ascertain. Lexicons, translations, or dictionaries are not always as definitive as we might like to believe. We continue to see people quote definitions to prove opposite views. The way words are used in texts of Scripture is the best way to define New Testament words and the way we propose to define the word is not with the word, “earnest” in the sense of a downpayment. ____ explains, “In all of these texts Paul seems to understand the arrabon, not only as of the pledge but also as the “first installment” (cf. “the aparche of the Spirit” in Romans 8:23) of our promised inheritance. That is to say, the Father has already made the initial deposit of eternal life into our hearts by the sealing of the Spirit. Now it is the business of a “down payment” to include immediate occupancy. This earnest having already been conferred, then, we even may now reside inwardly in the realm of glory.’[2]
In contradiction to a multitude of views concerning the Holy Spirit, this section of the book is designed to show that the Holy Spirit is not the downpayment on their inheritance. Simon J. Kistemaker represents this popular view, when he writes, “God has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit, a first installment. We have the assurance that after the initial deposit a subsequent installment follows.”[3] By appealing to the definitions offered by our lexicons, one might make this conclusion. But the way the word is used reveals a different conclusion. Rather than thinking of it as a deposit that is followed by future installments, the Holy Spirit was the surety or guarantee that the possession is a present reality. Having the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit provided the visible seal/proof of that reality. To fix this in our mind, we must distinguish the seal of the guarantee from what was guaranteed (redemption, salvation). The Spirit is neither salvation, nor inheritance, but the guarantee of salvation and the inheritance.
[1] Gordon Fee, Empowering Holy Spirit, 97.
[2] Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of Christ in the Psalms, Christ in His Saints, and The Trial of Job (all from Conciliar Press). He is a senior editor of Touchstone
[3] Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997), 80.