Hebrews chapter 2 verses 5 upto 8b. Part 1
When I have the text I will be rmoving the verse numbers because a robot turns my text into speech to that you can listen to. It may take a couple of days before it comes up on spotify and other platforms.
First let us read the text;
Earth Subject to Man
For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying,
“WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER HIM?
OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM?
“YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS;
YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR,
AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS;
YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.”
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
Jesus Briefly Humbled
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
“I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN,
IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.”
And again,
“I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM.”
And again,
“BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME.” From Hebrews 2:5-13 NASB
The writer places Psalm 8 in context of the Son. Although the subject of the Psalm (man) may seem to be in the context of the whole of the human race. Using the methodology of his day for Biblical interpretation this was ok.
I am going to give the writer a name from now on and I am going to call him Apollos. There is no hard evidence, but some theologians think that he is the best fit. I’m taking this line because it is easier to say ‘Apollos’ than to say ‘the writer to the Hebrews’.
These verses that Apollos quotes are straight from Psalm 8. Psalm is very important because it is a Messianic Psalm. The kings of Israel in the old days were anointed with oil. (Mashiach). The Apostles inferred that Jesus was The King of Israel the anointed of God. Apollos and Paul are in complete agreement here but first let us work through the text. Apollos proved that all the angels were our servants. That Jesus is greater than the angels and because of this the only legitimate claimant is the King of Israel; That everything was subjected to his Christ. Having said that the Christ was to be made in subjection for a while under the angels but not for all time. I wrote a while ago.
The phrase in the Greek ‘a little while’ can also in the Greek be ‘a little than’. It has been understood both spatially and from a time perspective. However, I have to say that a pure spatial understanding would make a mockery of Hebrews 1 where Jesus is made greater than the angels. The ‘time aspect is needed to understand that Christ has only been made less than the angels for a short period. This was in accordance with the scriptures that it was for the sake of the salvation of humanity that he was made a little lower.
So then, let us keep in mind when we read this section of Hebrews. In verse 8b Apollos writes.
“For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. Hebrews 2:8b”
Obviously even today we don’t see everything subjected to Christ, but we do know that at the end of times this will actually take place. Calvin says the same type of thing (Calvin’s new testament commentaries, Eerdmans, Hebrews 1, and 2 Peter, pages 23 – 24). As evidence for this understanding Calvin Turns to 1 Corinthians 15. 28 I came to the same conclusion earlier and Apollos and Paul are in total agreement although they have a different way of saying it.
“ For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all. 1 Corinthians 15:27-28”
I touched on the above in “When time becomes unnecessary, we will be sharing in the Trinitarian Divine Life for eternity!”
“The Apostolic teaching is that Christ indeed did rise from the dead according to God’s plan and one day we will also rise from the dead. The day will come when Jesus as the King will hand over everything to the Father including the greatest enemy ‘death’. Then Christ will subject himself to the Father and the Church in Christ will be brought into the Trinitarian Divine Life and everything will be Perfect.” Taken from my Corinthian lessons in wordpress
This theology my friends has a name ‘recapitulation’ and here it is stated in a different style.
I also think Irenaeus helps us understand these truths as he wrote;
“As it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed in the beginning with God, by whom all things were made, who was also always present with mankind, was in these last days, according to the time appointed by the Father, united to His own workmanship, inasmuch as He became a man liable to suffering, [it follows] that every objection is set aside of those who say, “If our Lord was born at that time, Christ had therefore no previous existence.” For I have shown that the Son of God did not then begin to exist, being with the Father from the beginning; but when He became incarnate, and was made man, He commenced afresh the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had lost in Adam—namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God—that we might recover in Christ Jesus.
And again Irenaeus writes;
He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for (observabit) thy head, and thou on the watch for His heel.” For from that time, He who should be born of a woman, [namely] from the Virgin, after the likeness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent. This is the seed of which the apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians, “that the law of works was established until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks: “But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.” For indeed the enemy would not have been fairly vanquished, unless it had been a man [born] of a woman who conquered him. For it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over man at first, setting himself up as man’s opponent. And therefore does the Lord profess Himself to be the Son of man, comprising in Himself that original man out of whom the woman was fashioned (ex quo ea quae secundum mulierem est plasmatio facta est), in order that, as our species went down to death through a vanquished man, so we may ascend to life again through a victorious one; and as through a man death received the palm [of victory] against us, so again by a man we may receive the palm against death.
” https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/irenaeus_on_recapitulation_in_christ.htm
I was planning to go to the end of verse 13 but I covered a lot of ground up to verse 8b.
Reflection
Who is Jesus?
Where did Jesus come from?
How does our salvation fit into this?
We have come to the conclusion that Jesus is God who became a human being. For a little while he lived with us and he communed with us. He is the King of Israel.
For the last question I can say that our salvation is dependent on his being, person and actions from the economic eternal Trinity.
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