Hebrews 2:6
But one in a certain place hath testified, saying: What is man, that thou art mindful of him: or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Open Hebrews 2:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Testatus est autem in quodam loco quis, dicens : Quid est homo quod memor es ejus, aut filius hominis quoniam visitas eum ?
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- διεμαρτύρατο δέ πού τις λέγων· Τί ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ, ἢ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν;
Haydock's commentary
But one; to wit, the author of the 8th Psalm said, what is man, &c. that it, man, or mankind, considered in his own frail nature, corrupted by sin, guilty of eternal death, that thou shouldst be mindful of him, restore him to thy favour, and bestow such graces upon him? But the words of the psalm, and of St. Paul in this place, though they may be understood of every man, yet are to be taken as particularly spoken of Christ as man, or of the human nature of Christ, exalted by the real union with the divine person of the Son of God. (Witham)
If the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ spoke in this manner, when visited by the eternal word, with what humility ought a sinner to say: What is man?
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian An Answer to the Jews, Conclusion. Clue to the Error of the Jews
Learn now (over and above the immediate question) the clue to your error. We affirm, two characters of the Christ demonstrated by the prophets, and as many advents of His forenoted: one, in humility (of course the first), when He has to be led “as a sheep for a victim; and, as a lamb voiceless before the shearer, so He opened not His mouth,” not even in His aspect comely. For “we have announced,” says the prophet , “concerning Him, (He is) as a little child, as a root in a thirsty land; and there was not in Him attractiveness or glory. …