Glorious and Depraved (3): Mankind Before the Fall (Part Two)

When the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 in defense to his readers that Jesus is the fulfillment of man’s rulership on earth, he quotes the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Old Testament, which reads,

⁵ For he did not put the world to come, about which we are speaking, under the control of angels. ⁶ Instead someone testified somewhere: “What is man that you think of him or the son of man that you care for him? ⁷ You made him lower than the angels for a little while. You crowned him with glory and honor. ⁸ You put all things under his control.”

The Septuagint translates elohim as ‘angels’ in Psalm 8, “You have made them a little lower than elohim and crowned them with glory and honor.” The word elohim (plural of el or eloah) is used, generally, of supernatural beings (the witch at Endor conceives of the spirit of Samuel as an elohim, 1 Samuel 28:13), sometimes translated ‘gods’, sometimes, actually most of the time, ‘God.” The Scriptures acknowledge other gods whom the nations worship, not attributing to them the attributes of the one true God, identifying them as actors in the world’s history (Daniel 10), who genuinely do powerful things, but in some cases are, as Moses says, demons:

They sacrificed to demons, not [Eloha] God, to [elohim] gods who had recently come along, new ones your ancestors had not feared. (Deuteronomy 32:17)

So David, in Psalm 8, could be saying humans are a little lower than God (Elohim), or a little lower than the gods (elohim), by which he might mean what we typically call angels. If David means angels, where did he get this idea? We don’t know. If he means God, it could come from Genesis 1, where God makes man in His image. Of course, if we are a little lower than God, we could still also be a little lower than the angels.

The author of Hebrews is making his case entirely about the relative greatness of the Son compared to angels. Let’s join the inspired author of Hebrews and interpret David’s intent as saying we are made a little lower than the angels. The author of Hebrews also describes angels as winds (or spirits) and ministering flames of fire, quoting Psalm 104:4. Because we see angels taking on numerous different presentations physically for the benefit of human eyes, we may presume that they are spirits without bodies, as is God. And because they have all the same attributes of personality as God and humans, we may also presume they are made in God’s image.

So what makes us lower than them? Perhaps it is that we were created after them, we don’t normally have access to heaven, and we have physical bodies that are an essential part of who we are. We are connected to the earth, having been made from its elements. We are not as powerful as angels, or as knowledgeable in some instances.

Angels, we may say, are like God, incorporeal and made in His image, but not regenerative or procreative (Matthew 22:30).   Humans are like God (in His image), but corporeal, like the animals. Animals are like humans, with bodies (corporeal), but with less personal capacity (not possessors of God’s image, at least in its fullness). Plants are like animals, corporeal, with no or next to no personal capacity (though some would argue this).