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No.3.
An examination of the term "all things under His feet".
pp. 149 - 152
We have already quoted Eph. 1: 22, 23 but deferred the examination of the words `all
things under His feet', so that they may be given separate consideration.
As is known, the words occur for the first time in Scripture in Psa. 8:, and they are
quoted not only in Eph. 1: but in Heb. 2:, as well as in I Cor. 15: Connected with this
passage we must consider another phrase, namely, "Till I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool", which occurs originally in Psa. 110: and is quoted in Matthew, Mark, Luke,
Acts and Hebrews. If we attend to the way in which these two passages from the Psalms
are originally employed, and then to the way in which the several writers of the N.T.
have quoted them, we shall gain further illumination upon the goal of God as expressed
in I Cor. 15: 28.
First let us consider Psa. 8: The first book of the Psalms, Psa. 1:-41: (note the
double amen at the end of Psa. 41:) is divided according to The Companion Bible, into
three large sections:
(1) Psa. 1:-8::
Man and the Son of Man (8: 4).
(2) Psa. 9:-15::
The Man of the earth (Antichrist 10: 18).
(3) Psa. 16:-41::
The Man Christ Jesus.
Of this subdivision we are particularly interested in the first, for that includes the
Psalm which contains the words `all things under his feet' (Psa. 8: 6).
When we think of I Cor. 15: 28 and Psa. 8: together, we discover that there is in
both an enemy; that they both make pointed allusion to sun and star and speak of the
glory that pertains to the earth and the glory that pertains to the heavens. Even the flesh
of man, fish and birds are compared and contrasted. The frailty of man even at his
creation is indicted by the contrast between Adam, the first man, who was made `a living
soul', and Christ, the last Adam, the second Man, as a `life giving Spirit'. The further
frailty of the sons of Adam is revealed in the references to the human body during this
life and to the resurrection body of the life to come. "It is sown in weakness, it is raised
in power."
We pass now to the reference to Psa. 8: in the epistle to the Hebrews.