Early Christian Beliefs About the Logos

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching

But the Son of God is the Logos of the Father, in idea and in operation;

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

...s there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, so there are many Logoi. But we, for our part, pray that the one Logos may be with us, He who was in the beginning and was with God, God the Word. For whoever does not receive this Logos who was in the beginning with God, or does not attach himself to Him as He appeared in flesh, or does not share in some of those who had a share in this Logos, or whoever, after having had a share in Him, falls away from Him again, will have his portion in what is called most opposite to reason. What we have drawn out from the truths with which we started should now be clear enough. First, we spoke about God and the Word of God, and of gods, either beings who partake in deity or beings who are called gods and are not. And again, of the Logos of God and of the Logos of God made flesh, and of Logoi, or beings which partake in some way of the Logos, of second Logoi or of third, thought to be Logoi, in addition to that Logos that was before them all, but not really so. These may be called irrational reasons. There are beings spoken of who are said to be gods but are not, and one might place beside these gods who are no gods, reasons which are no reasons. Now the Go

Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching

As He who is peculiarly the Son of God, being no other than the Logos, yet makes use of Logos (reason) — for He was the Logos in the beginning, and was with God, the Logos of God — so John, the servant of that Logos, being, if we take the Scripture to mean what it says, no other than a voice, yet uses his voice to point to the Logos.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

wherefore also the Logos is God, being the substance of God.

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

For if it had been called simply Logos, and had not been said to be the Logos of God, then we would not be clearly informed that the Logos is the Logos of God.

Tatian, Address to the Greeks Direct teaching

For the heavenly Logos, a spirit emanating from the Father and a Logos from the Logos-power, in imitation of the Father who begot Him made man an image of immortality, so that, as incorruption is with God, in like manner, man, sharing in a part of God, might have the immortal principle also.

Tatian, Address to the Greeks Direct teaching

God was in the beginning. But we have been taught that the beginning is the power of the Word. For the Lord of the universe is Himself the necessary ground of all being. Since no creature yet existed, He was alone. But since He was all power, and was Himself the necessary ground of things visible and invisible, all things were with Him. With Him also, by Word-power, the Word Himself, who was in Him, subsists. And by His simple will, the Word springs forth. And the Word, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten work of the Father. We know that He, the Word, is the beginning of the world. But He came into being by participation, not by separation. For what is cut off is separated from the original substance. But what comes by participation, choosing its function, does not make deficient the one from whom it is taken. For just as many fires are lighted from one torch, yet the light of the first torch is not lessened by the kindling of many torches, so the Word, coming forth from the Word-power of the Father, has not stripped from Him who begot Him the Word-power. I myself, for example, speak, and you hear. Yet surely I, who am speaking, do not become deprived of speech by

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness

The Word Himself is before every creature — eternal from the Eternal, like spring from spring, and light from light.

Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Supporting witness

To us He condescended, that Word who was always with the Father co-existent God.

John 1:1 Background

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:2 Background

He was in the beginning with God.

John 17:5 Background

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Proverbs 8:22 Background

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

Tertullian, Apology Direct teaching

proving that He was the Logos of God, that primordial first-begotten Word, accompanied by power and reason, and based on Spirit, — that He who was now doing all things by His word, and He who had done that of old, were one and the same.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

... which we may learn that all things were created and established by the Son of God, that is, by the Word of God? For he says the same thing that John and the others say. Indeed, it is clear that both John and the others received from him what they say. For if John says, "All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made," the prophet David also says, "I declare my works to the King." Moreover, Moses presents God as commanding at the beginning that there should be light, that heaven should be established, that the waters should be gathered into one place, that the dry land should appear, that fruit should be brought forth according to its seed, that animals should be produced, and that lights and stars should be established in heaven. He shows that no one else was then present with God, by whom these works were commanded to be made, except him by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. And if he is the Word of God, for "my heart has brought forth a good Word," he shows that in the beginning the Word was, and that this Word was with the Father, and also that the Word was God, and that all things were made by him. Moreover, this Word was made flesh

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

... us this principle: that all things were created and established by the Son of God, that is, by the Word of God? For he says the same thing that John and the others say. In fact, John and the others are understood to have received from him what they say. For if John says, “All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made,” the prophet David also says, “I declare my works to the King.” Moses, moreover, presents God as commanding at the beginning that there should be light, that heaven should be established, that the waters should be gathered into one place, that the dry land should appear, that fruit should be brought forth according to its seed, that animals should be produced, and that lights and stars should be established in heaven. He shows that no one other than Him by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made, was then present with God, by whom these works were commanded to be made. And if He is the Word of God, for “my heart has brought forth a good Word,” he shows that in the beginning the Word was, and that this Word was with the Father, and that besides this the Word was God, and that all things were made by Him. Moreover, this Word was

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

For simultaneously with His procession from His Progenitor, inasmuch as He is this Progenitor's first-born, He has, as a voice in Himself, the ideas conceived in the Father.

Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness

But the Word of God is substantial, endowed with an exalted and enduring nature, and is eternal with Himself, and is inseparable from Him, and can never fall away, but shall remain in an everlasting union.

Justin Martyr, The Second Apology Supporting witness

And His Son, who alone is properly called Son, the Word, who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ, in reference to His being anointed and God’s ordering all things through Him;

John 1:3 Background

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Hebrews 1:2 Background

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Wisdom of Solomon 9:1 Background

O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, Who hast made all things with thy word,

Jeremiah 32:6 Background

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

Wisdom of Sirach 43:26 Background

By him the end of them hath prosperous success, And by his word all things consist.

Jeremiah 32:4 Background

For the word of the Lord is right; And all his works are faithful.

Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching

or, in yielding your belief to their statements, look in admiration on the Logos of God, who became incarnate, and who desired to confer benefits upon the whole human race.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

He supposes this one Logos to be God, and affirms that there was in the case of the Word an incarnation.

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

...od, the same Christ and the Son of God is claimed to be man only. By this they try to exclude, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” and, “You shall call His name Emmanuel,” which is interpreted, “God with us.” For they bring forward what is told in the Gospel of Luke. From it they try to maintain, not what is true, but only what they want it to be: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you; therefore also the Holy Thing which is born of you shall be called the Son of God.” If, then, they say, the angel of God says to Mary, “that Holy Thing which is born of you,” then the substance of flesh and body is from Mary. But he has set forth that this substance, that is, that Holy Thing which is born of her, is the Son of God. “Man himself,” they say, “and that bodily flesh, that which is called holy, is itself the Son of God.” They also say that when the Scripture says “that Holy Thing,” we should understand Christ the man, the Son of man. And when it sets before us the Son of God, we should understand, not man, but God. And yet the divine Scripture easily convicts and exposes the frauds and artifices of the heretics. For if it had

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

And so John also, describing the birth of Christ, says, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Moreover, His name is called the Word of God in Revelation 19:13, and not without reason. "My heart has emitted a good word." Afterward he then calls that word by the name of the King by implication: "I will tell my works to the King." For by Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made, as John 1:3 says. Whether they are thrones or dominions, or powers, or mights, visible things or invisible, all things subsist by Him, as the apostle says in Colossians 1:16. Moreover, this is that Word which came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. For the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him, as John 1:10-11 says. Moreover, this Word was in the beginning with God, and God was the Word, as John 1:1 says. Who then can doubt, when it is said in the last clause, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," that Christ, whose birth is being described, is man because He was made flesh? And because He is the Word of God, who can shrink from declaring without hesitati

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

And so John also, while describing the birth of Christ, says, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” For His name is also called “the Word of God,” in Revelation 19:13, and not without reason. “My heart has uttered a good word.” He then afterward calls this word by the name of the King indirectly: “I will tell my works to the King.” For by Him all works were made, and without Him nothing was made, as John 1:3 says. “Whether,” says the apostle, “they are thrones or dominions, or powers, or mights, visible things and invisible, all things subsist by Him,” as Colossians 1:16 says. Moreover, this is that Word which came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. For the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him, as John 1:10-11 says. Moreover, this Word was in the beginning with God, and God was the Word, as John 1:1 says. Who then can doubt, when in the last clause it is said, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” that Christ, whose birth is being described, is man because He was made flesh? And because He is the Word of God, who can shrink from declaring with

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

...s that He can raise up again and rebuild the destroyed temple of His body, except because He is the Word who is from the Father, who is with the Father, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made; the imitator of His Father’s works and powers; the image of the invisible God; who came down from heaven; who testified to what He had seen and heard; who came not to do His own will, but rather the will of the Father, by whom He had been sent for this very purpose, that, being made the Messenger of Great Counsel, He might unfold to us the laws of the heavenly mysteries; and who, as the Word made flesh, dwelt among us? From these things, this Christ is proved to be not only man, because He was the Son of man, but also God, because He is the Son of God. And if Christ is called by the apostle "the first-born of every creature," how could He be the first-born of every creature unless, according to His divinity, the Word proceeded from the Father before every creature? And unless the heretics accept it this way, they will be forced to show that Christ the man was the first-born of every creature, which they will not be able to do. Either, therefore, He is before every

Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness

...er? Or who says that He can raise up again and rebuild the destroyed temple of His body, except the Word who is from the Father, who is with the Father, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made; the imitator of His Father's works and powers; the image of the invisible God; who came down from heaven; who testified to the things He had seen and heard; who came not to do His own will, but rather the will of the Father, by whom He had been sent for this very purpose: that, being made the Messenger of Great Counsel, He might unfold to us the laws of the heavenly mysteries? And as the Word made flesh, He dwelt among us. From all this, this Christ is proved to be not only man, because He was the Son of man, but also God, because He is the Son of God. And if Christ is called by the apostle "the first-born of every creature," how could He be the first-born of every creature unless, according to His divinity, the Word came forth from the Father before every creature? And unless the heretics accept it in this way, they will be forced to show that Christ the man was the first-born of every creature, and they will not be able to do so. Either, therefore, He is before e

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

... if it is not the work of the same author. In the same way, the heretic will also be refuted by the word "man": "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:47. Now, since the first was a man, how can there be a second unless he also is a man? Or else, if the second is Lord, was the first also Lord? For me, however, it is enough that in his Gospel he admits that the Son of Man is both Christ and Man. So he will not be able to deny Him in this passage, in the Adam and the man spoken of by the apostle. What follows will also be too much for him. For when the apostle says, "As is the earthy," that is, man, "such also are they that are earthy"—men again, of course. Therefore, "as is the heavenly," meaning the Man from heaven, "such are they also that are heavenly"—men also. For he could not possibly have set earthly men against heavenly beings that were not also men. His purpose was to distinguish more exactly their condition and expectation by using the same name for both. In regard to their present condition and their future expectation, he calls men earthly and heavenly, while still keeping the same name for them both, accordin

Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness

...is not God only, but man also. For just as He is not of this world according to the divinity of the Word, so He is of this world according to the frailty of the body that He has taken upon Himself. For man is joined with God, and God is linked with man. But for that reason Christ here laid more stress on the one aspect of His divinity, because the blindness of the Jews saw in Christ only the aspect of the flesh. So in this passage He passed over in silence the frailty of the body, which is of the world, and spoke only of His divinity, which is not of the world. He did this so that, in proportion as they had leaned toward believing Him to be only man, Christ might lead them to consider His divinity, so that they might believe Him to be God, desiring to overcome their unbelief concerning His divinity by omitting for the time being any mention of His human condition, and by setting before them His divinity alone. If Christ is man only, how does He say, "I proceeded forth and came from God," when it is clear that man was made by God, and did not proceed forth from Him? But in the way that, as man, He did not proceed from God, so the Word of God proceeded, of whom it is said, "My hea

Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ Supporting witness

But by saying made, he not only confirmed the statement, The Word was made flesh, John 1:14 but he also asserted the reality of the flesh which was made of a virgin.

Tertullian, On Modesty Supporting witness

But when the Word of God descended into flesh —(flesh) not unsealed even by marriage, — and the Word was made flesh, — (flesh) never to be unsealed by marriage, — which was to find its way to the tree not of incontinence, but of endurance;

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness

while the Gospel affirms plainly, that by the Word, which was in the beginning with God, all things were made, which Word, he says, “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

But the Greeks speak of Him as the Logos, more befittingly than we do as the word, or speech: for Logos signifies both speech and reason, inasmuch as He is both the voice and the wisdom of God.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

And of this divine speech not even the philosophers were ignorant, since Zeno represents the Logos as the arranger of the established order of things, and the framer of the universe: whom also He calls Fate, and the necessity of things, and God, and the soul of Jupiter, in accordance with the custom, indeed, by which they are wont to regard Jupiter as God.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

Therefore this one and highest Deity, by an act of thought, first brought forth the Word (Logos). He did not bring forth a word in the sense of something spoken by a voice, but as the rational thought of the universe, conceived and dwelling in the divine mind. Him alone He brought forth from existing things. For the Father Himself was existence, and the one begotten from Him was the cause of all things that were made. The Word (Logos) was in the Father Himself, carrying the will of Him who begot Him, and fully knowing the mind of the Father. For at the same time that He came forth from Him who begot Him, since He is the firstborn of His Begetter, He has within Himself, like a voice, the ideas conceived in the Father. And so, when the Father commanded the world to come into being, the Word (Logos) completed each part of creation one by one, and in this way pleased God. Some things that multiply by reproduction He made male and female. But whatever beings were made for service and ministry He made either male, or as not needing females, or as neither male nor female. For even their first elements, which were formed out of things that did not exist, namely fire and spirit, water and e

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness

But God, being all Mind and all Logos, both speaks exactly what He thinks and thinks exactly what He speaks. For His thought is Logos, and Logos is Mind, and Mind comprehending all things is the Father Himself. Therefore, anyone who speaks of the mind of God and ascribes to it a separate origin makes God a compound Being, as if God were one thing and the original Mind another. Similarly, regarding Logos, when someone assigns him the third place of production from the Father, they misunderstand His greatness; thus, Logos has been separated from God. As for the prophet, he declares about Him, "Who shall describe His generation?" But you claim to explain His generation from the Father and transfer the creation of human words, which happens through a tongue, to the Word of God, and thus you are justly exposed by yourselves as knowing neither things human nor divine.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness

and this remaining in the mind is most properly termed Logos (reason), from which the spoken Logos (word) proceeds.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness

For His thought is Logos, and Logos is Mind, and Mind comprehending all things is the Father Himself.

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness

...he mind and reason. He is surrounded by light, beauty, spirit, and indescribable power. Through His Word, He created the universe, arranged it, and keeps it in being. I have already shown this clearly. And I say, "His Word," because we also acknowledge a Son of God. No one should think it absurd that God should have a Son. The poets, in their fictions, present the gods as no better than men. But our way of thinking is not like theirs, either about God the Father or about the Son. The Son of God is the Word of the Father, in idea and in action. For all things were made after His pattern and through Him, and the Father and the Son are one. And since the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son, in unity and power of spirit, the Son of God is the understanding and reason of the Father. But if, because of your great intelligence, you wish to ask what is meant by the Son, I will explain briefly. He is the first product of the Father, not as if He had been brought into existence. For from the beginning, God, who is the eternal mind, had the Word in Himself, because He was from eternity endowed with reason. But the Word came forth to be the idea and active power of all materia

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

...t strained, since we have taken the Word in one sense to be the Word in the beginning, who was with God, God the Word, and have now taken it in another sense, speaking of it not only in reference to the main works of creation, as in the words, "All things were made through Him," but also as related to all the acts of reasonable beings, this latter being the Word as reason, without whose presence none of our sins are committed. The question then arises whether the Word in us is to be declared the same being as He who was in the beginning and was with God, God the Word. Certainly, the Apostle does not seem to make the Word in us a different being from the Word who was in the beginning with God. "Do not say in your heart," he says in Romans 10:6-8, "Who shall go up into heaven?" that is, to bring Christ down; or, "Who shall go down into the abyss?" that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? "The Word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart."

Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness

John 1:1 and there is a divinity present according to nature in the Spirit into wit, what subsists as the Spirit of God— according to Paul's statement, You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. 1 Corinthians 3:6

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Supporting witness

but inasmuch as He came forth to be the idea and energizing power of all material things, which lay like a nature without attributes, and an inactive earth, the grosser particles being mixed up with the lighter.

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Supporting witness

For the image of God is His Word, the genuine Son of Mind, the Divine Word, the archetypal light of light;

Clement of Alexandria, Fragments Supporting witness

as also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreate.