Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 2:5

"For not unto angels did he subject the world to come, whereof we speak." — Hebrews 2:5 (ASV)

For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection. In this verse, the apostle returns to the subject he had been discussing in chapter 1—the superiority of the Messiah to the angels. From that subject he had been diverted (Hebrews 2:1–4) by showing them what must be the consequences of defection from Christianity and the danger of neglecting it.

Having shown that, he now proceeds with the discussion and shows that an honor had been conferred on the Lord Jesus which had never been bestowed on the angels—namely, the supremacy over this world. This he does by proving from the Old Testament that such a dominion was given to man (Hebrews 2:6–8), and that this dominion was in fact exercised by the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 2:9).

At the same time, he meets an objection that a Jew would be likely to make: that Jesus appeared to be far inferior to the angels. He was a man of a humble condition. He was poor and despised. He had none of the external honor that was shown to Moses—the founder of the Jewish economy—nor any of the apparent honor that belonged to angelic beings.

This implied objection he removes by showing the reason why he became so. It was proper, since he came to redeem man, that he should be a man and not take on the nature of angels. For the same reason, it was proper that he should be subjected to sufferings and be made a man of sorrows (Hebrews 2:10–17).

The apostle's remark in this verse is that God had never put the world in subjection to the angels, as He had to the Lord Jesus. They had no jurisdiction over it; they were mere ministering spirits. But the world had been put under the dominion of the Lord Jesus.

The world to come. The word here rendered world—oikoumenh—properly means the inhabited or inhabitable world. See Matthew 24:14; Luke 2:1; Luke 4:5; Luke 21:27 (Greek); Acts 11:28; Acts 17:6, 31; Acts 19:27; Acts 24:5; Romans 10:18; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 3:10; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 16:14.

In all these places, except one, it is rendered world. It occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Its proper meaning is the world or earth considered as inhabitable, and here the jurisdiction refers to the control over humanity, or the dwellers on the earth.

The phrase “the world to come” occurs often in the New Testament. Compare Ephesians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 6:5.

The same phrase, “the world to come,” occurs often in Jewish writings. According to Buxtorf (Lex. Ch. Talm. Rub.), it means, as some suppose, “the world that is to exist after this world is destroyed and after the resurrection of the dead, when souls shall again be united to their bodies.”

By others, it is supposed to mean “the days of the Messiah, when he shall reign on the earth.”

To me, it seems clear that the phrase here means the world under the Messiah—the world, age, or dispensation that was to succeed the Jewish one, and which was familiarly known to them as “the world to come.” The idea is that this world, or age, was placed under the jurisdiction of the Christ, and not of the angels.

This point the apostle proceeds to make out. See the notes on Isaiah 2:2.

Whereof we speak. This means “Of which I am writing;” that is, of the Christian religion, or the reign of the Messiah.