(Hebrews 2:5-9)
The writer of the Epistle has already assumed the establishment of a new order corresponding with the fulfilment of the purpose of creation. The sovereignty of this order was not prepared for angels (2:5). It was promised to man (2:6-8 a); and the promise was fulfilled in Jesus (2:8 b9).
5 For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one testified as we know (somewhere) saying
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
7 Thou madest him a little lower than angels; With glory and honour Thou crownedst him; And didst set him over the works of Thy hands:
8 Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet.
2:5.
ouj gavr
...]
For not unto angels did He subject
...The manifestations of the Divine Presence which have been shewn to attend the proclamation of the Gospel (2:4) are intelligible both from the Nature of the Son and from the scope of His work. For the greatness of the Son as the Revealer of the New Dispensation and of its preachers, His envoys, is revealed by the fact that (
a
) the future dispensation, which is, as has been already implied, the fulfilment of the Creator's will, was committed to man; and that (
b
) man's sovereignty has been gained for him, even after his failure, through the Incarnation of Jesus the Son of Man.
gavr
]
For
...The particle refers directly to the signs of divine power among believers which were a prelude to the complete sovereignty. The subject (God) is not expressed but naturally supplied from the former sentence.
oujk...ajggevloi"
...]
not to angels
, to beings of this class, but (as is shewn in the next verses) to man...(comp. Heb. 1:4
tw'n ajggevlwn
note). It is not said that the present world was subject to angels; but at the same time the writer of the Epistle may well have recalled the belief which found expression in the
LXX. Version of Deut. 32:8 that God assigned the nations to the care of angels while Israel was His own portion.
Compare Ecclus. 17:17 (14); Daniel 12:1; 10:13, 20. So too in later Jewish literature, e.g., in the Book of Henoch, angels are represented as having charge over different elements.
uJpevtaxen
]
did He subject
in the eternal counsel (comp. 1:2
e[qhken
) made known through the Psalmist. The word is borrowed by anticipation from the Psalm.
th;n oijk. th;n mevll.
] Vulg.
orbem terrae futurum
, O. L.
saeculum
futurum , Syr. dyti[d a/ml/[ .
The phrase is not to be understood simply of the future life or, more generally, of heaven. It describes, in relation to that which we may call its constitution, the state of things which, in relation to its development in time, is called the age to come ( oJ mevllwn aijwvn ), and, in relation to its supreme Ruler