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The quotation of this passage in Heb. 2: is luminous when seen in its setting. For
this we need the structure, which reduced to simpler elements is as follows:
HEBREWS 1: & 2:
A |
1: 1, 2. God once spoke by prophets. Now by His Son.
B
| 1: 2-14. BETTER than angels.
A |
2: 1-4. God once spoke by angels. Now by the Lord.
B
| 2: 5-18. LOWER than angels.
It will be seen that the quotation of Psa. 8: in Heb. 2: is part of a consistent
comparison of the ministry of the Son of God with that of angels. It appears from
Heb. 2: 5 that a former "world" was under the rule of angels, but that "the world to
come" will not be, and the proof is found in the reference to Adam in his capacity as a
figure of Him that was to come. The Psalm enumerates the orders that were put under the
feet of the first man, Adam, they were:
"All sheep and oxen , yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish
of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas" (Psa. 8: 7, 8),
but, when the Apostle uses this in Heb. 2:, he says "Thou hast put all things in
subjection under His feet" and instead of referring to sheep and oxen, fowl and fish, he
draws the extraordinary conclusion "For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He
left nothing that is not put under Him". Here is universal dominion, "nothing" that is not
put under Him. Using the same argument in the epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle
safeguards the truth by saying:
"But when He saith, all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted,
which did put all things under Him" (I Cor. 15: 27),
for the Corinthians by reason of their original paganism, their "gods many and their lords
many" may have stood in need of this reminder. The One glorious exception however
but emphasizes the universal nature of the Saviour's dominion. Here too is the one
occasion where Christ is called the last Adam and the second Man.
We have elsewhere given our reasons and submitted proofs of the Pauline authorship
of the epistle to the Hebrews, and this peculiar handling of Psa. 8: in both Hebrews
and Corinthians bespeaks a common author according to the accepted rule of higher
criticism. The rule and authority and power that is placed beneath the feet of the Son are
"enemies" as the context reveals:
"For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet" (I Cor. 15: 25),
the last being death. This leads on to the great goal of the ages when "God shall be all in
all", and it is anticipated in Eph. 1: 22, 23 by the headship of Christ over the church:
"And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the
Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."