2 Corinthians 1:22

Who hath also sealed us Here again the Greek has the aorist. We must refer it here to the attestation God gave to his calling and anointing by the manifest signs of His presence with His ministers. See ch 2 Corinthians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 12:12. Also Romans 15:15-19; 1 Corinthians 9:2. A seal(see note on 1 Corinthians 9:2; cf. Romans 15:28) is used to attest and confirm a legal document, which, according to our present legal custom, derived from the practice of past ages, when but few were able to write their names, must be -sealed" as well as -signed," before it is -delivered" to another person to act upon. For the expression -sealed with the Spirit," see Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30, and also, for a similar expression, John 6:27.

and given the earnest of the Spirit The Apostle here, as in ch. 2 Corinthians 5:5 and Ephesians 1:14, uses the Hebrew word arrhabon, which, derived from a verb signifying to plaitor interweave, and thence to pledgeor be securityfor (as in Genesis 43:9), came to have the meaning of earnest. An earnestis to be distinguished, however, from a pledge(see Robertson in loc.), in that the latter is "something different in kind, given as assurance for something else," as in the case of the Sacraments, while the former is a part of the thing to be given, as when "a purchase is made, and part of the money paid down at once." Schleusner translates into German by handgeldor angeld. The Hebrew word however, has also the meaning of pledge, as in Genesis 38:17-18. The word is found in the Greek and in a modified form in the Latin language, and exists to this day in the French "arrhes," and was no doubt derived by Greeks and Latins "from the language of Phoenician traders, as tariff, cargo, are derived in English and other modern languages from Spanish traders." Stanley. See his whole note, and cf. Romans 8:23. Our own word earnestcomes from a root signifying to run, to follow after eagerly. The use of the word in the text is due to the custom, common in all countries, of giving some pledgeof being in earnest. The words -in earnest," in our sense of meaning what we say, occur early in our literature. See Chaucer, Legende of Good Women, Queen Dido, line 1301. There is a valuable note on this word in the Speaker's Commentary on Proverbs 6:1.