Hebrews 2:5–8

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come,5 about which we are speaking,6 under the control of angels. 2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere:

“What is man that you think of him7 or the son of man that you care for him?

2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.

You crowned him with glory and honor.8

2:8 You put all things under his control.”9

For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see all things under his control,10

5	sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.
6	sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.
7	tn Grk “remember him.”
8	tc Several witnesses, many of them early and important (א A C D* P Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat co), have at the end of v 7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.” Other mss, not quite as impressive in weight, lack the words (𝔓46 B D2 𝔐). In spite of the impressive external evidence for the longer reading, it is most likely a scribal addition to conform the text of Hebrews to Ps 8:6 (8:7 LXX). Conformity of a NT quotation of the OT to the LXX was a routine scribal activity, and can hardly be in doubt here as to the cause of the longer reading.
9	tn Grk “you subjected all things under his feet.” sn A quotation from Ps 8:4–6.
10	sn The expression all things under his control occurs three times in 2:8. The latter two occurrences are not exactly identical to the Greek text of Ps 8:6 quoted at the beginning of the verse, but have been adapted by the writer of Hebrews to fit his argument.