Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 2:8

"Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him." — Hebrews 2:8 (ASV)

The dignity of a human being is further brought out by the fact that God has “put everything under his feet.” The human race is supreme among the beings of this created world. “Under his feet” shows that humans have complete supremacy. After completing the quotation, the writer goes on to draw out an important implication. In putting all things in subjection to humankind, God left nothing unsubjected. It is a picture of a divinely instituted order in which humanity is sovereign over all creation. A few commentators see “him” as referring in this place to Christ, to whom alone all things are rightly subjected. But grammatically there is no reason for this. The passage is describing the place of humankind in God’s order, and we do not come to Christ’s place until v.9. While in one sense everything is subject to Christ, there is another sense in which human beings have their rightful place of supremacy over the created order. From this ideal picture the writer turns his attention to current reality. As things are now, we do not see the subjection of all things to human beings, but one day this subjection will be fully realized. While the human race has power and dignity, there are many limitations. It is part of the frustration of life that in every part of it there are the equivalents of the “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:18) that make life so hard for the tiller of the soil. We all know what it is like to chafe under limitations while we glimpse the vision of what will someday be realized.