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mime?omai
[to imitate],
mimetes
[imitator],
symmimetes
[fellow imitator]
1. Secular Usage.
This group, which arises in the sixth century B.C., means to imitate, to
mimic. Culture is said to arise with the imitating of animals. Art is
called an imitation (in a derogatory sense in Plato). The term can have a
bad sense for what is unoriginal. In ethics imitation of good people is a
way to goodness, but there is also a danger of imitating wicked people.
2. The Cosmological
Concept.
In Plato reality is an imitation of the idea, time of eternity, and the
visible of the invisible. The creation of living creatures involves
imitation, and humans, too, must engage in imitation. The controlling
concept here is that of analogy, i.e., the relation between original and
copy. Imitation is not, then, the obedient following of a model in ethical
responsibility. The thinking of Plato has great influence, e.g., on the
Neo-Pythagoreans, the Stoics, and Philo. Later, the more ethical concept
seems to break free from the cosmological understanding, e.g., when Seneca
says that one should take God as a model.
3. The LXX and
Pseudepigrapha.
The group is rare in the LXX and occurs only in the Apocrypha. In general
the idea of imitation is alien to the OT and there is no thought of
imitating God. The situation changes in the pseudepigrapha, which demand
that we imitate exemplary people like Joseph, and also that we imitate God
by keeping his commandments. Kings should take God as their example in
dealing with their subjects.
4. Philo and
Josephus.
Philo, who often uses the group, is influenced by Platos view that the
heavenly and the earthly worlds correspond. The verb may denote conscious
imitation, but it may also be used where there is only comparison. Moses is
set up as a model to follow, and children should imitate their fathers. When
the
lo?gos
imitates God, the idea of original and copy is present. Imitating God is
fitting in with his plan at creation, but Philo recognizes that there are
limits to this imitation. Resemblance rather than conscious imitation is the
point when Joshua is said to be an imitator of the attractive character of
Moses. Josephus uses the group in the common sense of copying, imitating,
and resembling. He does not speak of imitating God but suggests that
creation is a model with its order and regularity.
5. The Word Group in
the NT.
In the NT we find
mime?omai, mimetes,
and
symmimetes.
In 3 Jn. 11 we simply have a general admonition; in context it means taking
Demetrius rather than Diotrephes as a model (vv. 9ff.). In Heb. 13:7 (cf.
11:4ff.; 12:1ff.) imitating faith means not merely striving to live up to
the faith of others but a readiness to take the same way of faith in full
commitment to Christ. In Heb. 6:12
mimeta?
has a strongly active thrust, unless the point is a simple comparison,
namely, that the readers should inherit the promises like those who have
shown faith and patience. Comparison is the point in 1 Th. 2:14; what
happened to the churches in Judea has now happened to the Thessalonians and
is no exception to the rule. In 2 Th. 3:7, 9 Paul offers himself as an
example of earning his own bread and not being a burden to others.
ty?pos
here is more than a pattern; it is an authoritative model.
ty?pos
also occurs in Phil. 3:17, which demands that the readers join in imitating
Paul and also mark those who so walk. Here again Paul is not only a pattern
but also an authoritative example. They are to walk as he does, but in so
doing to obey. This element of obedience is very clear in 1 Cor. 4:16, for
Paul has sent Timothy to remind the Corinthians of his ways in Christ,
i.e., not merely his conduct but his directions. The same applies in 11:1.
To be sure, Paul offers himself as a model in 10:32-33. He himself follows
the same criterion that he enjoins on his readers. But imitation involves
obeying the rule as well as copying Pauls example. This is why Paul adds:
As I am of Christ. If he simply meant that Christ is a model for him, then
he would surely have pointed the Corinthians themselves directly to Christ
and explained in what sense Christ is a model. Christ is, of course, a model
in this sense in Rom. 15:1ff. and Phil. 2:4ff. But in these passages Paul
develops the thought, and in any case it is not certain that Christ as model
is really the central concept in Phil. 2:4ff. The point, then, is rather
that the Corinthians should imitate Paul by heeding his word as he imitates
Christ by understanding the apostolic ministry as Christ wishes. Pauls own
authority rests on the superior authority of Christ. (Along these lines 11:2
stands in a closer relation to 11:1 than is sometimes thought.) In 1 Th. 1:6
and of the Lord is an intensifying, and the next phrase shows to what
degree the Thessalonians are imitators. A question arises, of course,
whether the stress in this added phrase is on receiving the word or on much
affliction and joy. If it is on the former, then the idea is that in
receiving the word the readers become imitators by obeying, and they become
a
ty?pos
(v. 7) simply by becoming believers and turning to God (v. 8). If the
emphasis falls on the affliction and joy, imitation has more of the nature
of a comparison. In Eph. 5:1 therefore points back to 4:32 and ahead to
5:2. If the point is that God is to be an example, then the same applies to
Christ in 5:2. But 5:2 (cf. 4:32) seems rather to be supplying the ethical
motive. The point of 5:1, then, is that as children we are to follow Gods
fatherly will, showing that we are children thereby. To take God as a model
is not to be equal with God but to live by his pardoning love. In general,
Paul uses the group in three senses: (1) comparison (1 Th. 2:14), (2)
following an example (2 Th. 3:7, 9), with a plain implication of Pauls
authority, and (3) obeying directions (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; 1 Th. 1:6; Eph.
5:1). The NT as a whole does not teach imitation in the primary sense of
imitating an example but rather in the predominant sense of discipleship,
i.e., of obedience to the word and will of the Lord either directly or by
way of the apostles.
6. The Apostolic
Fathers.
The group is more common and more important in these writings. The usage is
fluid in Ignatius and 1 Clement and still contains the thought of obedience.
Ignatius stresses discipleship in suffering, but without restricting the
idea of imitation to martyrdom. The imitation of the passion, even
externally, is a key concept in the Martyrdom of Polycarp. Polycarp himself
(1.1) calls imprisoned brethren
mimemata
of true love either in a portrayal or a copying of Christ.
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