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of adoption, enjoyed now in this life, Rom. 8: 23 speaks of the literal, future adoption
"the redemption of the body" for which the believer waits and which cannot be enjoyed
apart from resurrection. What is called "the spirit of adoption" in verse 15, is called
"the firstfruits" of the spirit in verse 23. Now the firstfruits was a pledge of the yet future
harvest, so Paul, who wrote Rom. 8:, could link the spirit of the promise the Holy
One, with the earnest of a future inheritance. Not only is there in both passages the
"adoption", there is "predestination" and "hope".
Let us turn then to the earnest and see what we can learn. The word so translated is
arrhabon, a word exactly the same as the Hebrew of Gen. 38: 17 except, of course
the characters used are Hebrew instead of Greek. This word seems to have passed from
the Phoenicians in their trading, to the Greeks, and thence to the Romans, (Latin arrha,
arrhabo). Our English "earnest" is a descendant of this Hebrew word. The terminal "t"
is an addition, and like many other additions it may have grown out of the idea that the
word meant that one was in earnest when promising, and this form of speculation is a
cause of many etymological pitfalls. In Middle English, the word was spelt ernes, and
sometimes earles, whence comes the early English equivalent "earlespenny", a term not
unknown in some parts of Scotland to-day. The English word was derived from the
Old French arrhes.
Blackstone in his commentary says of the earnest:
"If any part of the price is paid down, if it be but a penny, or any portion of the goods
delivered by way of earnest, the property of the goods is absolutely bound by it . . . . ."
Erabon, the Hebrew word which appears in Greek form in Eph. 1: 14 occurs
three times in Gen. 38: and is translated "pledge". The simpler word Arab occurs
twenty-two times, and is translated "surety", "pledge", "mortgage", "engage",
"undertake", "mingle", "meddle" and "sweet". Note although for certain reasons one
word begins in English with E, and the other with A, both represent the one Hebrew letter
Ayin. It may not be at first obvious how this word can have such a variety of meanings.
The root meaning of the word is "to mix, or mingle" as in Ezra 9: 2, and in Lev. 13: in
nine verses, it is translated "the woof", a word meaning the threads that cross "the warp",
the threads running the long way of the fabric. In all its varied renderings, the one idea of
"intermingling" is present. Take the word "surety". Judah realized the serious
implications of suretyship saying:
"For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not
unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee,
let thy servant abide INSTEAD OF the lad" (Gen. 44: 32, 33).
The surety is so intermingled with the one for whom he becomes pledge as to be
practically inseparable. All these features enter into the thought of the "earnest" in
Eph. 1: 14. Whether the pledge be a penny or a pound it is equally binding. Whether the
earnest include the confirmation of supernatural gifts, including even the raising of the
dead, or whether it be but the possession of that faith which is the substance of things
hoped for, whether it be the "manifestation of the spirit" or whether the witness of the
spirit be so simple, so quiet, so unobtrusive as to exclude all apparent "evidence", one