short: there is only a little of something, whether a stretch of time, a distance, an amount, or a degree
This is a word for shortness rather than for smallness. It does not say that a thing is little in size or lowly in rank; it says that there is only a little of it, that it runs a short way and then stops. In the New Testament it never simply describes an object or a person. It always measures something else, and the measurement is the whole of what it contributes.
One word covers four different dimensions, and only the sentence tells the reader which one is in view:
- a stretch of time, as when a little while passes before Peter is challenged a second time
- a distance, as when sailors sound the depth again a short way further along
- an amount of something, as when a crowd is too large for each person to get even a little
- a length of speech, as when a writer says he has put it all in only a few words
Two neighboring Greek words are easy to confuse with it. μικρός puts something low on a scale: a small child, a person of no standing, the smallest of seeds. ὀλίγος means few or not much: a few workers, a small quantity of wine. This word is the one that measures how far something reaches before it ends, which is why it is the natural choice for a short interval of time or space.
The hardest use comes in the letter to the Hebrews, which quotes Psalm 8 about being made "a little lower than the angels". The Greek phrase can mean lower by a small degree or lower for a short time, and Greek is under no pressure to choose. The argument in Hebrews 2:9 turns on Jesus being brought low and then crowned, so most readers hear duration there, while the psalm itself is speaking about rank. English versions divide over which to print.
Nuances
Whether the phrase applied to Jesus in Hebrews 2:9 measures duration, that he was lower than the angels for a short time before being crowned, or rank, that he was lower than the angels by a small degree. The Greek phrase carries both possibilities, and in the Greek Old Testament of Psalm 8:6 it renders a Hebrew word for a small amount.
- majorityDuration: Jesus was made lower than the angels only for a short time, since the writer's argument moves from the suffering of death to the crowning with glory and honor.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989); William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (Word Biblical Commentary 47A, 1991); F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (New International Commentary on the New Testament, revised edition, 1990)
- minorityRank: the phrase keeps the sense it has in Psalm 8, that he was made a little lower than the angels.; BDAG, s.v. βραχύς
Whether the quotation of Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2:7 should be read as the psalm itself reads, made a little lower than the angels in rank, or already in the sense of time that the writer draws out in Hebrews 2:9, made lower than the angels for a short while. The Greek phrase allows both, and English versions divide.
- contestedRank, as in the psalm: humanity is made only a little lower than the heavenly beings, which is what the Hebrew of Psalm 8:5 says and what its Greek translation reproduces here.; BDAG, s.v. βραχύς
- contestedTime: the writer already intends for a short while, since he quotes the psalm precisely in order to argue that the lowering of Jesus was temporary and gave way to his crowning.; Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia, 1989); William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8 (Word Biblical Commentary 47A, 1991)