really all you need is Gen 2 to show that man is Biblically an animal:
Gen 2:7
וייצר יהוה אלהים את־האדם עפר מן־האדמה ויפח באפיו נשׁמת חיים ויהי האדם לנפשׁ חיה׃
Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul.
Genesis 2:19.
ויצר יהוה אלהים מן־האדמה כל־חית השׂדה ואת כל־עוף השׁמים ויבא אל־האדם לראות מה־יקרא־לו וכל אשׁר יקרא־לו האדם נפשׁ חיה הוא שׁמו׃
Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living
creature became its name.
Interestingly enough these two verses also show that God created man and beast in the same way, out of the same material. Now let's look at the verse that Smidlee wants to use and see whether it contradicts this:
The specific reference that Smidlee wants to use is Hebrews 2:5-9
Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
We see here the argument in part for Christ's deity, and in part of his humanity, but that's not how Smidlee wants to use it, however there is no mention of animals here in relation to Jesus' position over creation. However the writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 8 so let's have a look at that as well:
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Here we have the contrast between men and animals a bit, it harkens back to Genesis 1 where God says to man: Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. but we still haven't seen something where man is explicitly said to be not an animal.
