Hebrews 2:5–9

2:5 The conjunction “for” shows that the forthcoming exposition of Psalm 8 supports the exhortation to stay moored to the word spoken through the Son (Heb. 2:1–4). He has spoken salvation because he has come to share our humanity in order to lead us to glory. Our author has been speaking of the “world to come” since 1:6, where he introduced God’s command for angels to worship the Son as having been spoken at the moment when God brought him into that realm of last-days blessedness (through resurrection and ascension). “Not to angels” implies that God subjected the world to come to someone else—but to whom? Psalm 8 gives the answer.

2:6–8a The psalm citation is introduced in vague terms: “It has been testified somewhere” reflects the Greek text’s indefinite identification of the quotation’s source (lit., “somewhere someone testified”). The author is signaling that this text, unlike those in chapter 1, is addressed by a human speaker to God, but the identity of the human speaker is not significant.

God put everything “in subjection” under the feet of “the son of man.” Scholarly opinion is divided over whether our author treats Psalm 8 as a straightforward messianic prophecy of the Son’s brief humiliation and subsequent exaltation or as a forecast of humanity’s destiny, which finds its first fulfillment in Jesus. In favor of seeing the Son as the one to whom the world to come is subject is the motif of subjects being placed “under his feet,” which links Psalm 8 with Psalm 110:1, cited in Hebrews 1:13. On the other hand, “those who are to inherit salvation” were introduced in 1:14, and the author will soon describe them as “many sons” whom God brings to glory through Christ’s suffering (2:10). Further, when the formula “not [to] angels” concludes this section in 2:16, the preacher places over against angels “the offspring of Abraham,” the people of God.

A third alternative, which builds a bridge between the messianic and anthropological perspectives, is based on the observation that Psalm 8 shares vocabulary appearing in preceding and following psalms (e.g., the Lord’s name, the earth, foes, enemies, heavens). These connections embed this psalm in a context that opens the biblical Psalter by identifying the blessed man with the anointed Davidic Messiah, the Lord’s Son (Psalms 1–2).¹ Psalm 2:7, we recall, was the first OT passage that our author cited to establish the Son’s superiority to the angels (Heb. 1:5). In view of Psalm 8’s undeniable allusion to the universal dominion entrusted to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, it is reasonable to believe that David, the royal speaker of Psalm 8, portrayed his reign as a step toward the remedy of Adam’s failed kingship in the garden. Our preacher would then be building on David’s Adamic-Messianic trajectory, showing its destination in Jesus.

In this understanding, Psalm 8 is invoked first to describe humanity’s honored place in the hierarchy and history of God’s personal creatures, seen in King Adam at creation and reappearing after the fall in King David, a seed of the woman en route to the ultimate Seed, who would conquer the Foe through his own submission and suffering (Gen. 3:15). Then, after noting that humanity’s dominion is not now visible, our author brings Jesus into view as the fulfillment of human destiny, interpreting the psalm as forecasting the phases of Jesus’ mission as the last Adam and royal Messiah, first in submissive humility and then in glory.

Our author’s citation follows the LXX except for the deletion of one line, “and you appointed him over the works of your hands,” which is essentially synonymous with the next, included by Hebrews and containing the significant term “subjection” (cf. 2:5, 8). The LXX renders the Hebrew term ʼelohim (“heavenly beings” in Ps. 8:5) as “angels,” a legitimate interpretation that serves our author’s purpose in showing the angels’ relationship to humanity and to the incarnate Son.

In what ways are humans subordinate to angels? Our author implied his answer when he referred to the angels’ mediation of the law to Moses at Sinai (Heb. 2:2). That law imposed obligations and stipulated penalties for their violation and delivered an earthly system of worship, including sanctuary and sacrifices (Hebrews 8–10). Christ was “born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4–5) and to replace the law’s shadows (Heb. 9:11–14; 10:19–22).

2:8bc Our author’s commentary first notes that Psalm 8 speaks of earthly creatures’ universal subjection to humanity. Then comes the realistic observation that “at present” this human dominion is not visible. Believers’ sufferings (2:14–16; 10:32–34; 11:32–38; 12:3–11) and the perishability of the heavens and earth (1:10–12; 12:25–27) display disorder, dysfunctionality, and death, which contradict God’s purpose revealed in the psalm. Human sin has infected the created order with rebellion and chaos (Gen. 3:14–19; Rom. 8:18–22). Yet a spark of hope glimmers in the adverb “not yet” (oupō). Psalm 8 is not a mournful elegy for an idyllic world long ago deceased. Rather it offers a preview of a peaceable kingdom yet to come, perhaps foreshadowed in the “rest” from enemies that David once enjoyed (2 Sam. 7:1; cf. comment on Heb. 4:8).

2:9 The spark of hope expands to a ray with the introduction of Jesus, now—for the first time in this sermon-letter—called by the human name given him at birth (Matt. 1:21, 25). The author builds anticipation by first describing an individual using the psalm’s terminology: “for a little while . . . made lower than the angels.” Then the suspense is broken and he is identified by name, “Jesus.” The two lines of Psalm 8:5 (Heb. 2:7) forecast two phases of the Son’s identification with us in our humanity: (1) first he was lowered for “a little while” beneath the angels (through becoming incarnate and suffering death for others); (2) then he was “crowned with glory and honor” (raised, ascended, and enthroned at God’s right hand). The adverbial expression “a little” (Hb. meʻat; LXX brachy ti) could indicate a small difference of degree or distance (2 Sam. 16:1) or a brief period of time (Pss. 94:17; 119:87; Luke 22:58; Acts 5:34). Our author understands the expression temporally: “for a little while.”

His appeal to Psalm 8 serves two purposes:

1. (1) It clarifies the relationship between the Son’s eternal divine superiority to angels and his mediatorial superiority to angels. Since the Son is the changeless creator of heaven and earth and all their inhabitants, infinitely greater than angels, how could he “become” superior to angels and “inherit” a name more excellent than theirs (Heb. 1:4)? The exaltation of the Son after he made purification for sins (1:3) presupposes his prior condescension to become the incarnate mediatorial Son, sharing for a brief time humanity’s position subordinate to the angels.
2. (2) It affirms the solidarity of the Son with human beings through his incarnation and humiliation. Angels are servants not only to the Son but also to the human heirs of the salvation he came to achieve (1:6, 14), whom he calls his “brothers” (2:11–12).

The prologue mentioned the Son’s priestly work of making purification for sins, but here we learn the price he paid to achieve this purifying mission: he suffered death, tasting it “for everyone.” Our author will further describe the “everyone” for whom Jesus died as the “many sons” for whom he is the founder of salvation (Heb. 2:10) and as the “offspring of Abraham,” whom he helps (v. 16). Jesus’ death was the purpose of his incarnation: “He himself likewise partook of [flesh and blood], that [Gk. hina] through death he might destroy . . . the devil” (2:14–15). His death is also the warrant for his vindication: “crowned with glory and honor because of [Gk. dia] the suffering of death” (v. 9). His enthronement at God’s right hand is his reward for faithful obedience “to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6–11).