Hebrews 2:4-8

Context
2:4 while God confirmed their witness¹ with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed² according to his will.

Exposition of Psalm 8: Jesus and the Destiny of Humanity

2:5 For he did not put the world to come,³ about which we are speaking,⁴ under the control of angels. 2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere:

“What is man that you think of him⁵ 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.⁶

2:8 You put all things under his control.”⁷

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,⁸

[2:4] ¹tn Grk “God bearing witness together” (the phrase “with them” is implied).

[2:4] ²tn Grk “and distributions of the Holy Spirit.”

[2:5] ³sn The phrase the world to come means “the coming inhabited earth,” using the Greek term which describes the world of people and their civilizations.

[2:5] ⁴sn See the previous reference to the world in Heb 1:6.

[2:6] ⁵tn Grk “remember him.”

[2:7] ⁶tc 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 (Ì⁴⁶ B D² Ï). 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.

[2:8] ⁷tn Grk “you subjected all things under his feet.”

[2:8] ⁸sn 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.