Hebrews 2:7-9

2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.

You crowned him with glory and honor.¹

2:8 You put all things under his control.”²

For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see all things under his control,³ 2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while,⁴ now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death,⁵ so that by God’s grace he would experience⁶ death on behalf of everyone.

¹tc Several witnesses, many of them early and important (א A C D* P Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat co), have at the end of v 7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.” Other mss, not quite as impressive in weight, lack the words (Ì⁴⁶ B D² Ï). In spite of the impressive external evidence for the longer reading, it is most likely a scribal addition to conform the text of Hebrews to Ps 8:6 (8:7 LXX). Conformity of a NT quotation of the OT to the LXX was a routine scribal activity, and can hardly be in doubt here as to the cause of the longer reading.

²tn Grk “you subjected all things under his feet.”

sn A quotation from Ps 8:4-6.

³sn The expression all things under his control occurs three times in 2:8. The latter two occurrences are not exactly identical to the Greek text of Ps 8:6 quoted at the beginning of the verse, but have been adapted by the writer of Hebrews to fit his argument.

⁴tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

⁵tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

⁶tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).