---
title: Hebrews 2:8
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-2-8/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-2-8.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 2:8
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 2:8

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> and placed everything under his feet.”   When God subjected all things to him, He left nothing outside of his control. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.

## JW Usage

Hebrews 2:8 is the Watchtower's primary "all things has exceptions" proof-text. Because the verse says "we do not yet see all things subjected to him," JWs argue that "all things" language elsewhere in the New Testament (notably Colossians 1:16) can be read with similar contextual qualifications — and so the NWT's insertion of "other" at Colossians 1:16 ("all *other* things") is defensible. Christ, on this reading, is excluded from the "all things" of Colossians 1:16 in the same way that some present circumstances are excluded from the "all things" of Hebrews 2:8.

## Protestant Usage

The qualification in Hebrews 2:8 is *temporal*, not *categorical*. The verse explicitly says "in subjecting all things to him, God left nothing that is not subject to him" — the scope is universal by the author's own definition. The "not yet" applies to visible manifestation, not to the categorical reach of the subjection. By contrast, Colossians 1:16 has no such temporal qualification — its "all things" is exhaustively unpacked ("things in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible... thrones, lordships, governments, authorities") to leave nothing out. The two verses use "all things" with the same universal scope; only Hebrews 2:8 marks an eschatological gap between subjection and visibility. Pair with Hebrews 2:10 — the same "for whom and through whom" prepositional pair Paul uses of Jesus at Colossians 1:16, the author of Hebrews uses of the Father here. Identical Creator language, two persons.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [All Things Exist For and Through Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/hebrews2-all-things-subject.md) — Hebrews 2:5-10 [Deity of Christ]