The effect and purpose of the seal is 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 (Politics1.11). 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. Lenski 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 a 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.