Λόγος προφορικός, the term used by Paul of Samosata, implied that the Word was impersonal, being conceived as a particular activity of God.  See Dorner, Person of Christ, Div. I. vol. ii. p. 436 (English Tr.):  and compare Athanasius, Expositio Fidei, c. 1; υἱὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀϊδίως γεγεννημένον, λόγον δὲ οὐ προφορικόν, οὐκ ἐνδιάθετον.  Cardinal Newman (Athan. c. Arianos, I. 7, note) observes that some Christian writers of the 2nd Century “seem to speak of the Divine generation as taking place immediately before the creation of the world, that is, as if not eternal, though at the same time they teach that our Lord existed before that generation.  In other words they seem to teach that He was the Word from eternity, and became the Son at the beginning of all things; some of them expressly considering Him, first as the λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, or Reason, in the Father, or (as may be speciously represented) a mere attribute; next, as the λόγος προφορικός, or Word.” The terms λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, or ‘word conceived in the mind,’ and λόγος προφορικός, or ‘word expressed’ (emissum, or prolalivum), were in use among the Gnostics (Iren. II. c. 12, § 5).  As applied to the Son both terms, though sometimes used in a right sense, were condemned as inadequate.  Compare xi. 10.