Hebrews 2:5

γάρ. The “for” resumes the thread of the argument about the superiority of Jesus over the Angels. He was to be the supreme king, but the necessity of passing through suffering to His Messianic throne lay in the fact of His High-Priesthood for the human race. To Him, therefore, and not to Angels, the “future age” is to belong.

Οὐ γὰρ�, “For not to Angels did He subject the inhabited earth to come.” In this “inhabited earth” things in their prae-Christian condition had been subjected to Angels. This is inferred directly from Psalms 8. where the “little” of degree is interpreted as “a little” of time. The authority of Angels over the Mosaic dispensation had been inferred by the Jews from Psalms 82:1, where “the congregation of Elohim” was interpreted to mean Angels; and from Deuteronomy 32:8-9, where instead of “He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel,” the LXX. had “according to the number of the Angels of God.” From this passage, and Genesis 10; Daniel 10:13, &c. they inferred that there were 70 nations of the world, each under its presiding Angel, but that Israel was under the special charge of God, as is expressly stated in Sir 17:17 (comp. Isaiah 24:21-22, LXX.). The notion is only modified when in Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:20, Michael “the first Prince,” and in Tob 12:15, “the seven Archangels,” are regarded as protectors of Israel. But now the dispensational functions of Angels have ceased, because in “the kingdom of God” they in their turn were subordinated to the man Christ Jesus.

τὴν οἰκουμένην τὴν μέλλουσαν. The Olam habba or “future age” of the Hebrews; although the word here used is not αἰὼν but οἰκουμένη, properly the inhabited world. In Isaiah 9:6 the Theocratic king who is a type of the Messiah is called “the Everlasting Father,” which is rendered by the LXX. “father of the future age.” In the “new heavens and new earth,” as in the Messianic kingdom which is “the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ,” man, whose nature Christ has taken upon Him, is to be specially exalted. Hence, as Calvin acutely observes, Abraham, Joshua, Daniel, are not forbidden to bow to Angels, but under the New Covenant St John is twice forbidden (Revelation 19:10; Revelation 22:9). But although the Messianic kingdom, and therefore the “future age,” began at the Resurrection, there is yet another “future age” beyond it, which shall only begin when this age is perfected, and Christ’s kingdom is fully come.

περὶ ἧς λαλοῦμεν, i.e. which is my present subject.