Philo referred
to the λογος as “the
second God” in the following:
Why is it that he speaks as if of some other
god, saying that he made man after the image of God, and not that he made him
after his own image? [Genesis 9:6]. Very appropriately and without any
falsehood was this oracular sentence uttered by God, for no mortal thing could
have been formed on the similitude of the supreme Father of the universe, but
only after the pattern of the second
deity (τον δευτερον θεον), who is the Word of the supreme Being; since it
is fitting that the rational soul of man should bear before it the type of the
divine Word; since in his first Word God is superior to the most rational
possible nature. But he who is superior to the Word holds his rank in a better
and most singular pre-eminence, and how could the creature possibly exhibit a
likeness of him in himself? Nevertheless he also wished to intimate this fact,
that God does rightly and correctly require vengeance, in order to the defense
of virtuous and consistent men, because such bear in themselves a familiar
acquaintance with his Word, of which the human mind is the similitude and form.
(Questions in Genesis II.62)
This mirrors
Justin Martyr, an early Logos Christology advocate, who referred to Jesus as “the
second God” (on this, see