Thomas Aquinas Commentary Hebrews 2:5-8

"For not unto angels did he subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, And didst set him over the works of thy hands: 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 2:5-8 (ASV)

Having made a comparison to show that it is more necessary to observe the commandments of Christ than those of the Law delivered by angels, the Apostle now confirms the implication. He does this in two ways:

1. He confirms this implication by showing that Christ’s power is greater than that of the angels.
2. He proves this on the authority of Scripture (Hebrews 2:6).

He says, therefore, that those who act against Christ’s commandments will undergo more severe punishments than those who act against the commandments of angels. This is because Christ is Lord, and a person who offends his Lord is punished more than one who sins against a servant. That Christ is Lord is shown by the fact that God has not subjected the world to angels but to Christ. The author does two things here:

1. He shows that the world is not subject to angels.
2. He clarifies which world he means (Hebrews 2:5).

The world is not subject to angels: What other has he appointed over the earth, or whom has he set over the world he made? (Job 34:13). One might object that Daniel 10 says an angel was the prince of the Greeks and of the Persians, and Deuteronomy 32:8 says, He appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel. It should be noted, however, that nations are not subject to them as to a lord, but as to a vicegerent, for all visible creation is administered by angels: His ministers who do his will (Psalms 102:21).

Alternatively, the author means that it was not to angels that God has subjected the world to come. In Scripture, something can be described as “coming” not in relation to us, but in relation to that with which it is compared. For example, the Apostle says of Adam in relation to Christ, Who is the form of the future (Romans 5:14). Christ is not “future” in relation to Himself, but only in relation to Adam. So here, this world is said “to come” not in relation to us, but in relation to Christ, who exists from all eternity, whereas the world exists in time.

And because the Manicheans say that the world is subject to an evil god and not to the good God, the author adds, of which we speak. This clarifies that he is not talking about some other world, but this one. Alternatively, he adds this phrase because he had said above that the heavens shall perish and they shall be changed. As was explained there, this is understood to refer to the state of the world, not its substance.

Therefore, there are two states of the world. The first is its present state: But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment (2 Peter 3:7). The other is its future state. In the world that now exists, not all things are subject to Him regarding the execution of His power, although they are subject to His authority. But in that future state, the world will be subject to Him. This is why he says, of which we speak.

Next, the author proves his point by citing an authority, beginning with the words, But one in a certain place testified. He does three things:

1. He commends the value of the testimony to be presented.
2. He presents the testimony itself (Hebrews 2:6b).
3. He explains the meaning of the testimony (Hebrews 2:8b).

Regarding the testimony, he first states that the words of the Old Testament are witnesses to Christ: Search the Scriptures... they are they which testify of me (John 5:39). This is why the author says, it has been testified somewhere. Second, among the Jews, some writings were less known and others better known. The Psalms were of greater value than the texts they used in all their sacrifices; hence, he says somewhere, meaning a place that is well-known and clear. Third, he gives the authority of the speaker, David, who enjoyed the greatest authority: The man to whom it was appointed concerning the Christ of the God of Jacob, the excellent Psalmist of Israel said (2 Samuel 23:1).

Then he presents the authoritative text (Hebrews 2:6b), in which he does three things:

1. He hints at the mystery of the Incarnation.
2. He hints at the mystery of the Passion (Hebrews 2:7).
3. He hints at the mystery of the Exaltation (Hebrews 2:7b).

Regarding the first point, he touches on two things: the cause of the Incarnation, and the Incarnation itself (Hebrews 2:6c).

The cause of the Incarnation is God’s care for humanity. Therefore, the psalmist asks, What is man? as if in contempt. It is as if to say: Man is so unimportant when compared to God. All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing and vanity (Isaiah 40:17). For if a person loves another and leaves him in wretchedness for a long time, he seems to have forgotten him.

God loved the human race, both because He made it in His own image and because He placed humanity in the midst of paradise. But after sin, because He did not come to our aid immediately, He seemed to have forgotten us. Later, however, He seems to have become mindful of humanity when He sent a Redeemer: Remember us, O Lord, in the favor of your people; visit us with your salvation (Psalms 105:4). Therefore, he says, What is man that you are mindful of him?

It is as if to say: If we consider man’s lowliness, it is strange that You should be mindful of him who is so lowly and so small. I say lowly and small in his nature, especially in regard to his substance: God formed man from the slime of the earth (Genesis 2:7); And now, O Lord, you are our Father and we are clay (Isaiah 64:8). He is lowly in his sins; hence, Augustine says on John: “Men accomplish nothing when they sin.” Behold, I have made you small among the nations, you are exceedingly contemptible (Obadiah 1:2). He is lowly and weak in his punishment: Man born of a woman, living for a time is filled with many miseries (Job 14:1); Who shall raise up Jacob, for he is very little? (Amos 7:5).

Second, he mentions the Incarnation when he says, or the son of man, that you visit him? It should be noted that in Sacred Scripture, Christ is called the Son of Man, as is clear from Daniel and from the Gospel. While others are called “sons of men”—O you sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? (Psalms 4:3)—Christ alone is the Son of Man, namely, of the Blessed Virgin, and He is visited by God.

Sometimes in Scripture, a “visitation” refers to a benefit, as when the Lord visited Sarah as He had promised and fulfilled what He spoke (Genesis 21:1). Other times it refers to a punishment: I will visit their iniquities with a rod (Psalms 88:33). But here it refers to a benefit: “You visit him” means you confer a most excellent gift on humanity, making us sons of God when His humanity is assumed by the Word. Or, he says this because of Christ’s fullness: full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Alternatively, both phrases can be referred to Christ, so that the meaning is this: You were mindful of him in the Incarnation, when humanity was assumed by Christ, but you visit him in the resurrection. Or, both could be referred to the human race. Every son of man is a man, although not every man is a son of a man, for Adam was not the son of a man. A “man,” therefore, is one who bears the image of the earthly man, Adam, and this man is a sinner. But a “son of man” is one who bears the image of the heavenly man, Christ, who is called the Son of Man: Therefore, as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49).

“Man,” therefore, refers to a sinner. Because he is far from God—for salvation is far from sinners (Psalms 118:155)—God is said to be “mindful” of him, as one is mindful of someone far away. But when he is changed from a sinner to a righteous person, this “son of man” is “visited” by grace: Your visitation has guarded my spirit (Job 10:12).

Next (Hebrews 2:7), he mentions the mystery of the Passion. It should be noted that in the order of nature, corruptible things are lower than incorruptible things. Angels are incorruptible and immortal by nature; hence, when Christ condescended to suffer and undergo death, He was made a little lower than the angels. This was not because He had lost His fullness or was diminished in any way, but because He joined our smallness to Himself.

This was signified in Luke 22:43: There appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. This was not because He needed the angel, but to show that by suffering He was, for a time, lower than they. He says a little lower for two reasons. First, every bodily creature is insignificant when compared with a rational one, because bodily things are confined within the fixed limits of their quantity, but rational things are not, as they can grow in intelligence. Christ was made lower than the angels not in regard to His divinity or His soul, but in regard to His body. Therefore, he said, a little lower, meaning quantitatively.

Second, He is a little lower in terms of duration, because His humiliation lasted only a short time: For a small moment have I forsaken you (Isaiah 54:7).

Nor is it strange that He was made lower than the angels in His suffering body, since in this respect He was even made lower than man: I am a worm and not a man (Psalms 21:7). This was because of His shameful death: Let us condemn him to a most shameful death .

But if the question, What is man that you are mindful of him? is referred to humanity in general, then humanity is said to be a little lower than the angels in several ways. First, not in the kind of knowledge (for both humans and angels share rational knowledge), but in the manner of knowing, because angels know in a more excellent way than humans. Second, regarding the body. Although an angel and a soul are of one intellectual nature, the soul is united to a body. Even in this, humanity is only a little lower, because the dignity of the soul is not destroyed by this union, but it is dulled and hindered from higher contemplation: The corruptible body is a load upon the soul . Third, regarding gifts. In this respect, humanity is a little lower not in regard to gratuitous gifts, in which the blessed will be as the angels in heaven (Matthew 22:30), but in regard to natural gifts.

Then (Hebrews 2:7b), he presents the mystery of exaltation. He shows three aspects of it: first, its glory; second, its honor (Hebrews 2:7c); and third, its power (Hebrews 2:8). As it is written: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and benediction. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea... (Revelation 5:12).

He says, therefore, You have crowned him with glory, that is, with brightness, for glory implies brightness. Christ was crowned with a double glory. First is the glory of the body: Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory (Philippians 3:21). This glory was promised to Him in John 12:28: I have both glorified it (that is, your soul, by filling it with the splendors of grace) and will glorify it again (that is, the body, with the glory of immortality). The second glory comes from the confession of all people: Every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:11); Glory and great beauty shall you lay upon him (Psalms 20:6).

Next (Hebrews 2:7b), he shows His honor, adding, and honor. Honor differs from glory as an effect from its cause, for honor is the reverence shown in view of some excellence; hence, it is a testimony to one’s goodness. This honor consists in every creature revering Him just as the Father is revered: That all men may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father (John 5:23).

He says Christ is crowned as a sign of victory, because a crown is given to a victor: They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible (1 Corinthians 9:25); He is not crowned, except he strive lawfully (2 Timothy 2:5). Christ won this crown through the struggle of His Passion: He was made obedient unto death... Wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:8–9). The things that belong to Christ as God are not a reward but are natural to Him; yet, inasmuch as He is man, they are the reward for the victory of His Passion.

Then he shows His power, first regarding its authority, and second, its effect (Hebrews 2:8).

Regarding its authority, he says, You have set him over the works of your hands. This can be understood in three ways. First, He was set over all places in the Ascension: He ascended up far above all heavens (Ephesians 4:10). Second, He was set over all dignities: Setting him at his own right hand... Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion (Ephesians 1:20–21). Third, He was set over all power, because He is set above every creature: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18). Christ as God is not appointed but born; yet He is appointed as man: Whom he has appointed heir of all things (see above, Hebrews 1:2).

The effect of His power is that all things are subject under his feet. The prophet uses the past tense for the future because of God’s authority, for it has already taken place in God’s eternal predestination. He says under his feet, meaning under His humanity or with complete subjection: Until I make your enemies your footstool (Psalms 109:1).

The phrase “under his feet” can refer to His humanity. For just as the head of Christ is God, so the feet of Christ can be understood as His humanity: We will worship at his footstool (Psalms 131:7).

Alternatively, if the passage is understood as referring to humanity in general, then humanity is said to be crowned with glory in its intellectual knowledge, in which it excels the other animals: The man... is the image and glory of God (1 Corinthians 11:7); Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth (Job 35:11). Humanity is crowned with honor, inasmuch as it alone among all animals is master of its own actions and is not subject to necessity regarding its soul, because it has free will. It is crowned with power, because God has set humanity over all His works: Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth (Genesis 1:26).

Finally (Hebrews 2:8), the author explains the meaning of the testimony. He does this in two parts, first regarding Christ’s exaltation, and second, His humiliation (Hebrews 2:9). Regarding the exaltation, he first shows how the prophet’s statement is to be understood, and second, that it has not yet been completely fulfilled (Hebrews 2:8b).

Therefore (Hebrews 2:8a), he shows how the statement is to be understood. Since Scripture says that all things have been subjected to Christ, there is nothing outside His control. The word “all” is not limited to certain categories but applies absolutely to everything, because all things are generally and universally subject to Him. To this, Arius might argue: “The Father has subjected all things to the Son; therefore, the Son is inferior to the Father.” I answer that it is true that the Father subjected all things to the Son according to His human nature, in which He is inferior to the Father—for my Father is greater than I (John 14:28)—but according to His divine nature, Christ subjected all things to Himself.

Then, when he says, But now we see not yet all things put under him, he shows that this has not yet been completely fulfilled. Unbelievers, sinners, and devils are not yet subject to Him in their wills: But they have not all obeyed the gospel (Romans 10:16); How long do you refuse to submit to me? (Exodus 10:3). Consequently, sinners are not subject to Christ by reason of their rebellious wills. However, in regard to His power, all are subject to Him: now in regard to His authority, but later in regard to their obedience. This, then, is an explanation of the phrase the world to come (Hebrews 2:5).