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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Earnest
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EARNEST.—In 2Co_1:22; 2Co_5:5, Eph_1:14 St. Paul describes the Holy Spirit as the believer’s ‘earnest.’ The word means ‘part-payment,’ the deposit being the same in kind as what is to follow. Cf. Tindale’s (1533) use of ‘earnest-penny’: ‘that assured saving health and earnest-penny of everlasting life.’ Rabbi Greenstone (JE [Note: Jewish Encyclopedia.] v. 26) quotes Kid. 3a to the effect that the payment of a perutah, the smallest coin of Palestinian currency, on account of the purchase, was sufficient to bind the bargain. The Gr. word was probably introduced by the Phœnicians. Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 108 f.) shows that in 2Co_1:21 the verb ‘stablisheth’ connotes a legal idea and stands in ‘an essential relation’ to ‘earnest’ in 2Co_1:22. St. Paul represents the relation of God to believers under the image of ‘a legally guaranteed security.’
J. G. Tasker.