ANCIENT WORLD

How to live well:

Role models and imitation
in early Christianity
Cor Bennema looks at what the Graeco-Roman world and
the Bible can teach us about using imitation to aid Christians
to live well

A
ccording to the Cambridge
Dictionary, the slang acronym
YOLO (‘you only live once’) is used,
especially on social media, to mean
that you should do things that are enjoyable
or exciting, even if they are silly or slightly
dangerous. Indeed, many people today seek
to live the good life in hedonistic ways and
find their role models on social media, where
influencers promote an often-undiscerning
following. In Christianity, the issues of living
well and role models also play a crucial role
and Christians are not always careful about
whom they imitate. What can history and the
Bible teach us about how imitation might aid
Christians to live well?
In Graeco-Roman antiquity, to live well was
a serious moral quest. People were instructed
on how to live well in society in several ways.
At religious festivals, people gathered in
the city theatre to watch the performance
of several dramas—and these were not just
about entertainment. Plays presented real-life
dilemmas that people were facing in society,
so the cast functioned as a kind of role model
for the audience.1 In education, orators
instructed young people on how to choose
good role models and discern what to imitate
from them. A few examples will illustrate this
dynamic. Seneca, a Roman philosopher and
statesman, urges Lucilius, the procurator of
Sicily during Nero’s reign, to associate with
and observe appropriate role models:
Cleanthes could not have been the express
image of Zeno, if he had merely heard his
lectures; he shared in his life, saw into his
hidden purposes, and watched him to see
whether he lived according to his own rules.
Plato, Aristotle, and the whole throng of
sages who were destined to go each his
different way, derived more benefit from the
character than from the words of Socrates. It
was not the classroom of Epicurus, but living
together under the same roof, that made
great men of Metrodorus, Hermarchus, and
Polyaenus. (Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
6.6, Gummere, LCL)

1 See M. C. Nussbaum, ‘Philosophy and Literature’, in The

Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy, ed. D.
Sedley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 211-241.
(This footnote was inadvertently missed in the print edition of Ink).

10 BIBLE LANGUAGES, BIBLE MANUSCRIPTS AND THE ANCIENT WORLD


Ancient education stressed that good imitation
was not about aping or cloning but required
study and discernment, as this excerpt from
Roman educator Quintilian shows:
Consequently the nicest judgment is
required in the examination of everything
connected with this department of study
[i.e. oratory]. First we must consider whom
to imitate. For there are many who have
shown a passionate desire to imitate the
worst and most decadent authors. Secondly,
we must consider what it is that we should
set ourselves to imitate in the authors
thus chosen. For even great authors have
their blemishes, for which they have been
censured by competent critics and have
even reproached each other. I only wish
that imitators were more likely to improve
on the good things than to exaggerate the
blemishes of the authors whom they seek to
copy (Institutio oratorio 10.2.14-15, Butler,
LCL).
Emerging in the Graeco-Roman world, early
Christianity applied this educational method
of imitating role models to the Christian life,
though there are arguably Old Testament
roots (e.g. Leviticus 19:2; Deuteronomy 10:18-
19; 12:30). In John’s Gospel and Letters, the
recurring phrase ‘just as [Jesus] did, [his
disciples] also should do’ expresses the idea
of learning through imitation, or ‘mimetic’
learning.
TYNDALEHOUSE.COM
ANCIENT WORLD
The episode that illustrates this best is the
foot-washing in John 13. While the narrative
and Jesus’s instruction to follow his example
in verse 15 seem straightforward, he does
not intend for his followers to mindlessly copy
him. When Jesus returns to the table after
having washed his disciples’ feet, he does not
straight away tell them to do likewise. Rather,
he asks, ‘Do you understand what I have
done to you?’ (verse 12). A literal, thoughtless
washing of someone’s feet would completely
miss the point Jesus seeks to make. The
disciples are to understand that Jesus has
provided an act of humble, loving service that
they should repeat regularly in the Christian
community, but which can take different
forms. Through this repeated imitation, the
disciples’ behaviour and character could be
shaped to become more Christ-like.
Further on in John 13, the well-known love
command is also worded in terms of imitation:
‘just as I have loved you, you also are to love
one another’ (verse 34). But John would soon
face a dilemma: while he has been able to
observe Jesus first-hand, how could Christians
in the late first century imitate an ‘absent’
Jesus whom they could not see? The solution
is that John preserved the life and teaching
of Jesus in his Gospel, so that his audience
(and subsequent readers) can mentally
‘visualize’ Jesus and imitate him. The fact that
John creates new forms of imitation in his first
letter—e.g. to lay down one’s life in imitation of
Jesus in 1 John 3:16 is derived from Jesus’s
saying in John 15:13—shows that he expects
his audience to be able to do so.
The apostle Paul also uses mimetic
education in his churches, but adopts a
different strategy from John. Paul’s goal
in ministry was to present his converts
as ‘blameless’ before God at the final
day (1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Corinthians
1:8; Philippians 1:10; Colossians 1:22;
Ephesians 1:4) but he faced two dilemmas.
First, his converts often came from pagan
backgrounds, so how could they learn about
the Christian life? Instead of giving them ›
11
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a manual of the Christian life (although his
letters contain ample ethical instructions),
Paul points his converts to others that embody
and exemplify the Christian life. For Paul too,
Christ is the supreme example for imitation
(see, e.g. 1 Corinthians 11:1) and this creates
the second dilemma, because how could his
converts imitate an unseen Christ?
A peek at Paul’s letter to the Philippians
will show how he handles this. Paul presents
Christ as the supreme model for imitation
in 2:5-11 and then urges the Philippians to
model their corporate life on that of Christ
in 2:12 (note the plurals ‘you’ and ‘your’).
While the Philippians might visualise Christ
from 2:5-11 (like John’s strategy), Paul does
something different. He presents himself and
others as models for imitation. Introducing
himself as a ‘slave’ of Christ in 1:1, Paul
subtly indicates that he is an imitator of Christ
because the term occurs elsewhere only in
2:7, with reference to Christ. In 2:17, Paul’s
willingness to pour out his life for the sake
of the Philippians echoes Christ pouring out
his life for the sake of humanity. Then, in 4:9,
Paul urges the Philippians to keep on doing
(i.e. imitating) what they had seen in him. But
Paul also holds up Timothy and Epaphroditus
as examples for imitation. Timothy’s genuine
concern for the Philippians in 2:20 reflects
the ideal of 2:4 and imitates Christ’s selfless
interest in others. Epaphroditus’s near-death
experience for the sake of Christ echoes
Christ’s death for the sake of humanity. In
3:17b, Paul can even point the Philippians to
12 BIBLE LANGUAGES, BIBLE MANUSCRIPTS AND THE ANCIENT WORLD
other Christians who already exemplify the
Christ-like life that Paul promotes.
So what can Christians today learn from
history on how to live well? In both Graeco-
Roman antiquity and early Christianity,
imitation was not just mindless repetition,
but an intentional, inventive, and interpretive
process that involved several steps. The
first was to select and associate with good
role models, the second, to observe the role
models and discern what to imitate about
them, and the third, to determine the nature
and form of the imitative act. In imitating
Jesus, whether by constructing a mental
image from the biblical text or by observing
exemplary Christians, ‘young’ Christians will
become more Christ-like and live a life that
is pleasing to God. But imitating Jesus is not
simply for one’s personal growth. The ultimate
challenge is to become an example for others
to follow, whether as parents for their children,
as ministers for their congregants or as
teachers for their pupils.
Further reading:
C. Bennema, ‘Imitation in Johannine
Christianity’, Expository Times 132 (2020):
101-110.
Cor Bennema teaches New Testament
at London School of Theology and is the
author of Mimesis in Early Christianity:
The Religious-Ethical Concept of Example
and Imitation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
forthcoming 2024).