“Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. I has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’”
Paul now comes to talk about possible objections that Jews might have to Christ being the Messiah. Jews believed that angels were superior to humanity. Therefore, Jesus’ claim to be God would seem rather silly to a Jew who saw, as plain as day, that Jesus was a man. If angels are superior to humanity, and Jesus was a man, then clearly angels are superior to Jesus Christ, according to their way of thinking.
Paul means to respond to this objection by “taking the wind out of their sails.” He wishes to prove that humanity is actually more privileged than angels, since it is to humanity that the future world will be subjected. He goes to Psalm 8 to prove this statement. Psalm 8, however, doesn’t seem to be about Jesus. Why does Paul quote it in reference to Jesus? Is he misinterpreting Psalm 8? No, he is not misquoting. The reason that Paul is not misquoting Psalm 8 is that Jesus represents humanity. Jesus is the Man, par excellence. So the Psalm, in talking about humanity, is also talking about Jesus as He is the representative of humanity.
One very interesting detail that should be pointed out is that the original Hebrew text of Psalm 8 reads as follows: “You made him a little lower than the angels,” whereas Paul here quotes it as saying “You made him for a little while lower than the angels.” Paul quotes the Greek translation of Psalm 8. The Greek translation could mean either. However, in this case, Paul is clearly referring to the time of Christ’s humiliation on earth. Therefore, he quotes it as saying “for a little while.” Again, this is not misquotation. Rather, it is a selective quotation intended to make a theological point: Jesus was for a while lower than the angels, but has since been exalted far beyond the angels.” That answers the Jews’ objections rather nicely.
Do we see Jesus as a mere man? Does Christ’s life on earth bother us? Does that make Him in any way less than God? These questions are answered for us here.
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