ws that in relation to God the Logos is a creature; he is the
begotten, that is, the created God, the God who has a beginning.
Wherefore in rank he is below God ([Greek: en deutera chora]--[Greek:
deuteros Theos], "in the second place, and a second God"), the messenger
and servant of God. The subordination of the Logos is not founded on the
content of his essence, but on his origin. In relation to the creatures,
however, the Logos is the [Greek: arche], i.e., not only the beginning
but the principle of the vitality and form of everything that is to
receive being. As an emanation (the begotten) he is distinguished from
all creatures, for he alone is the Son;[436] but, as having a beginning,
he again stands on a level with them. Hence the paradoxical expression,
[Greek: ergon prototokon tou patros] ("first begotten work of the
Father"), is here the most appropriate designation. (4) In virtue of his
finite origin, it is possible and proper for the Logos to enter into the
finite, to act, to speak, and to appear. As he arose for the sake of the
creation of the world, he has the capacity of personal and direct
revelation which does not belong to the infinite God; nay, his whole
essence consists in the very fact that he is thought, word, and deed.
Behind this active substitute and vicegerent, the Father stands in the
darkness of the incomprehensible, and in the incomprehensible light of
perfection as the hidden, unchangeable God.[437]

With the issuing forth of the Logos from God began the realisation of
the idea of the world. The world as [Greek: kosmos noetos] is contained
in the Logos. But the world is material and manifold, the Logos is
spiritual and one. Therefore the Logos is not himself the world, but he
is its creator and in a certain fashion its archetype. Justin and Tatian
used the expression "beget" [Greek: gennan] for the creation of the
world, but in connections which do not admit of any importance being
attached to this use. The world was created out of nothing after a host
of spirits, as is assumed by most Apologists, had been created along
with heaven, which is a higher, glorious world. The purpose of the
creation of the world was and is the production of men, i.e., beings
possessed of soul and body, endowed with reason and freedom, and
therefore made in the image of God; beings who are to partake of the
blessedness and perfection of God. Everything is created for man's sake,
and his own creation is a proof of t