Hebrews 2:7

[καὶ κατὲστησας αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου]. This clause, retained in the rec., is found in אACM Vulg. &c., but not in BKL, and may be only a gloss added from the LXX.

7. βραχύ τι. The “little” in the original (meät) means “little in degree”; but is here applied to time—“for a little while”—as is clear from Hebrews 2:9. The writer was only acquainted with the LXX. and in Greek the βραχύ τι would naturally suggest brevity of time (comp. 1 Peter 5:10). Some of the old Greek translators who took the other meaning rendered ὀλίγον παρὰ θεόν.

παρʼ ἀγγέλους. On this comparative use of παρὰ see Winer, p. 503, and the note to Hebrews 1:9. The original has “than Elohim,” i.e. than God; but the name Elohim has, as we have seen, a much wider and lower range than “Jehovah,” and the rendering “angels” is here found both in the LXX. and the Targum. It must be borne in mind that the writer is only applying the words of the Psalm, and putting them as it were to a fresh use. The Psalm is “a lyric echo of the first chapter of Genesis” and speaks of man’s exaltation. The author is applying it to man’s lowliness (“ad suum institutum deflectit,” says Calvin, “κατʼ ἐπεξεργασίαν”). Yet David’s notion, like that of Cicero, is that “Man is a mortal God,” and the writer is only touching on man’s humiliation to illustrate his exaltation of the God-Man. See Perowne on the Psalms (1:144).

[καὶ κατέστησας αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σου]. This clause is probably a gloss from the LXX., as it is absent from some of the best MSS. and Versions (e.g. B and the Syriac). The writer omitted it as not bearing on the argument.