Logos

itself as many sensible classes of being as there quoted above, there also exists the "particular 'intelwereintelligible ones in the original.31 lectually-perceptible' " as a simple "generic" idea.These are the logoispermatikoi.Now the intelligible world, consisting as it does of In a passage of the Allegories, Philo comes close toideas, must then be the product of a mind--the Mind naming the Trinity of the Christians (God, Son, andof God, "The world consisting of the ideas could Spirit). He first cites the passage in Genesis where Godhave no other place than the Logos of God which shapes Adam from a lump of clay and then "breathesordered them" writes Philo, clearly letting Mind and into his face the breath of life." Says Philo, "NowLogos be synonymous, that which breathes in is God, that which receivesThen what is the act of creation? what is breathed in is the Mind, and that which isIn Philo, by the act of creation the Mind-Logos of breathed in is the Spirit. What then is collected fromGod generates the intelligible world, and thereby the these three things? A union of the three taxes--place."-32ideas take on a real existence of their own. A basic From another direction, Philo approaches thetransformation has taken same problem by assertingplace: what initially was that God exists in a Trinitymerely a potential world has with his two chief powers, thebecome an existent one. The creative power and the regalIdea of Ideas within the Mind power, the latter that whichof God has been actualized, administers the world and thegiving birth to the intelligible former that which creates it.world. An analogy can be By calling the creative powerdrawn with the process by "God," he allows the Suwhichan idea within the hu- preme Being to remain unmanmind, when it is actual- named, calling him only Heized, is spoken that is, it be- That Is (ho _n).comes a Word. So, the Idea of "On either side of him areIdeas has become a Word, the the most senior powers, theLogos. We should immedi- nearest to him, the creativeately recognize here the pas- and the regal. The title of thesage from the famous Pro- former is 'God,' (theos), sincelogue to the Gospel of St. it made and ordered the uni-John: "And the Word (Logos) verse; the title of the latter isbecame flesh and dwelt among 'Lord' (kyrios) since it is theus." fundamental right of theThe Logos, the principle maker to rule and controlof creative reason, is the gen- Christ with the Samaritan Woman what he has brought intoerative principle behind the being. ''33world of ideas. In turn, the Logos gives rise to the Iogoi Then Philo describes how the Three--He Thats_ermatikoi ("the seeds of the logos"), which Philo Is, God, Lord--appear assometimesThree, sometimesescribes as the seminal reason-principles by which One, depending on the state of the beholder. "So thethe ideas of the intelligible world are realized. The central Being, attended by each of his powers, pre-Trinity that Philo thus suggests is as follows: God; the sents to the Mind which has vision the appearanceIogos;and the logoispermatikoi or the ideas. Philo's God sometimes of One, sometimes of Three; of One,is utterly transcendant and, in that sense, is the "most when that Mind is highly purified and, passing notgeneric" of all; God is "unnameable," "unutterable," merely beyond the multiplicity of other numbers, butand absolutely without any predicates. Those "initi- even beyond the Dyad which is next to the Monad,ated into the true mysteries of the Existent," wrote presses on to the ideal form which is free from mixturePhilo, with a "generously gifted nature and educa- and complexity, and being self-contained needs nothtion,"are those who "do not attribute to God any ing more; of Three, when, as yet uninitiated into theproperties of a Created Being." highest Mysteries, is still a votary only of the minorWrote Philo, "The most generic is God, and next rites and unable to apprehend the Existent alone byto him is the Iogosof God, but all other things have an itself and part from all else, but only through itsexistence only in word .... The Logos of God is actions, as either 'creative' or 'ruling.' This, as theyabove the world, and is eldest and most generic of say, is a 'second-best voyage.'-34created things." And, concludes Philo, in the passage Now, we must consider here in preliminary formCAMPAIGNER / August 1980 37