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Journey of a Passage

Psalm 8:5

A little lower than God, or than the angels?

The Hebrew says God made the human being "a little less than elohim." Elohim usually means God, but can mean divine beings. The Greek translated "angels," followed by the Vulgate and the KJV. Hebrews 2:7 quotes the Greek.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

    The psalm as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

  2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

    Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Minuisti eum paulominus ab angelis; gloria et honore coronasti eum;

    Latin numbering: Psalm 8:6. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וַתְּחַסְּרֵ֣הוּ מְּ֭עַט מֵאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְכָב֖וֹד וְהָדָ֣ר תְּעַטְּרֵֽהוּ׃

    You made him lack a little from elohim (God / divine beings), and with glory and honour you crown him

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 8:6. Hebrew counts the title as verse 1.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

  5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Vous l’avez fait un peu moindre que les anges; vous l’avez couronné d’honneur et de gloire,

    Greek numbering: Psalm 8:5. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

Modern translations divide: "a little lower than God" (NRSV), "than the heavenly beings" (ESV), or "than the angels" (KJV). The letters are the same; the question is what elohim means here. The Greek translators chose a reading that avoided comparing humans directly with God.

Hebrews 2:6–9 reads the Greek "for a little while lower than the angels" (brachy ti can mean "a little" in degree or in time) of Jesus, who was made lower for a time and then crowned.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Hebrew reads me-elohim; the Greek and Latin read "angels."
  • Independently documentedHebrews 2:7 quotes the Greek.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 8: What Is Man? →A hymn framed by the same line at beginning and end: "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!" Out of the mouths of babes God has founded strength. When the poet considers the heavens, moon and stars, he asks, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" Yet God made humans "a little lower than the angels" (Hebrew elohim, God or divine beings) and gave them dominion over sheep, oxen, beasts, birds and fish.