1 Corinthians 15:27

“For He hath put all things under His feet; now when He saith all things are subjected to Him, it is manifest that He is excepted who subjected all things to Him.”

The first proposition is laid down as an indisputable truth; because it is taken from Scripture, Psalms 8:7. In the Old Testament it relates to man in general, at the time of his creation. But as the destiny of man thus declared is not realized, because of the fall, in any one save in the person of the Son of man, the normal man, the Messiah, it is with good right applied to Him in the New Testament; comp. Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8.

The subject of ὑπέταξεν, subjected, can only be God, as in the Psalm. The verb in the past refers to the Divine decree appointing Christ sovereign of the universe; of course the execution of the decree does not take place without His own co-operation. But why does the apostle insist on expressing the exception relating to God? Who could suppose that God formed part of those: all things, which were to be subjected to the Messiah? In the state of exaltation which prevailed among the Corinthians, had some one advanced the idea that God, considered as the impersonal force which animates the universe, would one day be wholly subject to the Messiah, as the supreme representative of the world? We met in 1 Corinthians 12:3 with an opposite eccentricity which is not more startling. But perhaps this remark, introduced by the apostle in the second part of our verse, is meant only to pave the way for the idea of the subordination of Christ to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:28).

The subject of εἴπῃ seems to me to be simply: God, by the Scripture. Meyer thought that the εἴπῃ should rather be applied to the declaration which God will make when the decree subjecting all things to Christ shall be realized, and God shall have proclaimed the fact in the ears of the whole universe. The δῆλον ὅτι would require in this case to be regarded as an adverbial form, in the sense of evidently: “When God shall have declared that all is subjected to Him, evidently He will Himself remain outside of this universal subjection.” But the connection between the two propositions would not be logical; what would be needed would not be: When God shall have said that..., but: When the fact itself shall have taken place. The second proposition gives the impression of a principle, as well as the first, and seems in no wise to refer to a particular time. As to the δῆλον ὅτι, Meyer's meaning is admissible, but not necessary. We mention only as an exegetical curiosity the explanation of Hofmann, who makes the two propositions beginning with ὅταν, when (1 Corinthians 15:27-28), two parallel propositions, the principal one beginning at the τότε, then, of 1 Corinthians 15:28. The δῆλον ὅτι signifies, according to him, that is to say, and the proposition depending on it is a parenthesis!

The evident fact which Paul wishes to express is, that at the time when all shall be subjected to Christ, voluntarily or involuntarily, only two powers will remain in existence: that of Christ, a power visible and universal, and that of the Father, who gave the Son this sovereign position. But this duality will last only for an instant; it will be immediately terminated by the free act of the Son which will close the development of things: