Hebrews 2:6-8a But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet.”
The author quotes Psalm 8:4-6 to show both Jesus’ humanity and divinity. This psalm is considered a messianic psalm that speaks about the coming messiah. The author takes the phrase in this psalm, “a son of man,” to refer to Jesus. “Son of man” was one of Jesus’ favorite designations for himself. The question in the psalm implies that humans are special to God. In a messianic sense, there is one special human. The “son of man” was made lower than the angels when he became human. Hebrews, more than any other New Testament book, helps us understand Jesus’ humanity. This point will come out in the rest of this chapter and be repeated in different ways throughout the rest of the book. Jesus was exalted after his resurrection. He was given glory and honor. As Paul says in Philippians 2:10-11, all knees will bow to Jesus as the supreme and only Lord. This last phrase is a clear reference to Jesus’ divinity.
Side note: The NIV has a wrong translation in this psalm and these verses. It makes the pronoun plural “they” when it is singular “he” in the Greek. I have been using the NIV and will switch to the ESV for the rest of my study of Hebrews. I am not sure I can trust the translation in this regard. It is clear that the author intends for this psalm to apply to Jesus and not humanity. The new NIV version forces the pronouns to be plural to be gender neutral, but this creates many problems, such as in this verse. I have been using the NIV for a while to get a sense of it, but I am not happen with the changes that have been made this last edition.
For older posts, click here.