EARNEST (eeriest), ar-hrab-ohn', pledge), money which in purchase is given as a pledge that the full amount will subsequently he paid. The Hebrew word ar-aw-batte') was used generally for fdedge (Gal. xxxviii:17 ), surely (l'rov. xvii:t8) and hos/acre (2 Kings xiv:t4).
(1) Hesyehius explains arrabohn by proclaim, sank-what given beforehand. This idea attaches to all the particular applications of the word, as, anything given by way of warrant or security for the performance of a promise • part of a debt paid as an assurance of paying the remainder ; part of the price of anything paid beforehand to eon ' firm the bargain Between buyer and seller: part of a servant's wages paid at the time of hiring, for the purpose of ratifying the engagement on both sides. The idea that the earnest is either to be re turned upon the fulfillment of the engagement, or to be considered as part of the stipulation, is also included.
This word, carried around the Mediterranean by Tyrian commerce, appears in Latin as ar•habo, arrha, arra, and ratio; in modern languages. Ital
ian, arra, caparra; Spanish, caparra; French, arr hos.
(2) The word is used three times in the New Testament, but always in a figurative sense ; in the first (2 Cor. :22), it is applied to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which God bestowed upon the ..fficstles, and by which he might he said to have hired them to be the servants of his son; and which were the earnest, assurance, and com mencement of those far superior blessings which Ile would bestow on them in the life to come, as the wages of their faithful services :—in the two latter (2 Cor. v:5; Eph. i t4), it is applied to the gifts bestowed on Christians generally upon whom, after baptism, the Apostles had laid their hands, and which were to them an earnest of ob taining an heavenly habitation and inheritance, upon the supposition of their fidelity. This use of the term finely illustrates the augmented powers and additional capacities promised in a future state.