You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:
⛓ Read Psalm 8 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation2
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
'He put all things in subjection under his feet' is quoted verbatim in v.27 (LXX Ps 8:7) and expounded as proof that death too must be subjected. Volume is maximal (explicit citation with formula 'for'), and Paul's exegetical attention to 'all things' confirms intentional use. The psalm's 'son of man' enthroned over creation is read christologically.
High confidence'He put all things in subjection under his feet' is a verbatim citation of 'you have put all things under his feet.' Volume is maximal (direct verbal match); recurrence (1 Cor 15:27; Heb 2:8) and thematic coherence (the dominion granted to the exalted man over creation) make this an explicit quotation.
High confidenceAllusion1
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'By which he is able even to subject all things to himself' quotes the verbal substance of 'you have put all things under his feet' (Ps 8:6), Paul's standard text for Christ's universal subjection of all things (cf. 1 Cor 15:27). High volume and Pauline recurrence.
High confidenceEcho5
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
‘Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet’ shares the ‘all things under his feet’ subjection imagery of Ps 8:6 — the very psalm Hebrews quotes next at 2:6–8. Recurrence (Hays): the two enthronement texts are linked by the shared ‘feet’ motif (gezerah shavah), and Ps 8 is demonstrably available across the seam of chapters 1–2.
Medium confidenceThe psalm's 'you have put all things under his feet' undergirds the early Christian conviction that all things belong to those in Christ. Paul's 'all things are yours' may draw on this dominion-over-all-things theology, but the connection is diffuse and contested here, lacking verbal markers in this pericope.
Low confidence'All things into his hands' may echo the psalmist's 'you put all things under his feet/gave him dominion.' The thought-rhyme of universal subjection is present but the verbal overlap is faint and the motif is widely diffused.
Low confidenceThe 'footstool' / subjugation-of-enemies-under-the-feet motif overlaps with Psalm 8's 'you have put all things under his feet.' The enthronement imagery of dominion beneath the feet belongs to a recurring royal/messianic cluster that interpreters frequently read alongside Psalm 110.
Low confidenceThe image of the enemy placed 'under your feet' overlaps with the subjugation language of Psalm 8:6 ('you have put all things under his feet'), which Paul uses elsewhere for Christ's triumph. Here the dominant source is Genesis 3:15; the 'under feet' phrasing is at most a secondary, disputed resonance.
Low confidence