Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Philo calling the Word as "the second deity/god"


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 A Triad of Early Christians Against the Trinity Being an Apostolic Belief)