But somewhere it is testified in these words: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor and placed everything under his feet.” When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet:
Significance
Hebrews quotes Psalm 8:4-6 verbatim — "What is man... or the son of man... You crowned him with glory and honor and placed everything under his feet" — and applies it to Jesus, "now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death" (Heb 2:9). The explicit citation is Psalm 8 (the vault files Heb 2:6-8a → Ps 8:4-6), but the shared title "son of man" and the keynote pairing of glory and dominion link Hebrews' argument to the broader son-of-man trajectory that crests in Daniel 7:13-14, where the Son of Man is "given dominion, glory, and kingship" and "everything... under his feet" becomes everlasting dominion over all nations. This IP documents the Danielic horizon of Hebrews' Psalm 8 use: the "world to come" not subjected to angels but to the Son (Heb 2:5) is the kingdom that Daniel saw given to the Son of Man. The connection is a longitudinal theme reaching fulfillment: the dominion sung of man in Psalm 8 and granted the Son of Man in Daniel 7 is realized in Jesus — though "at present we do not see everything subject to him" (already/not-yet, Heb 2:8). The telos is the crowned Sufferer: the One who attained the son-of-man's glory through tasting death "for everyone," so that His exaltation is the ground of our salvation, and to behold Him crowned is to trust the Brother who was not ashamed to die that we might be brought to glory (Heb 2:10-11).
Found via
Beale & Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker, 2007)
