A Modest Proposal

Below is the brief proposal which I will submit to the New Testament faculty today. Should it be approved, I will then put together a longer proposal which includes an outline for the dissertation and a lengthy bibliography. It seems some small bit of productivity slipped through a crack in my wall of procrastination.


In 1 Pet 2:21, the author encourages servants to remain faithful through the suffering they endure at the hands of unjust masters, “because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving an example for you, so that you might follow in his footsteps.” The metaphor of “following in his steps” receives a warm welcome in popular Christian thought,[1] but it is often kept at an uncomfortable distance by exegetes and theologians who perceive a dangerous path toward Roman Catholic imitatio piety hiding in the image.[2] Some overcome the discomfort by claiming 1 Pet 2:21 speaks not of “imitation” but of “discipleship.”[3] Thus, they attempt to save 1 Peter from possible accusations of legalism and restore the theological standing of this exegetical step-child.

I do not fault the theological and exegetical inclinations of writers who resist the legalistic connotations of imitation language: neither 1 Pet 2:21 nor the letter as a whole supports a legalistic pattern of religion. Elliott rightly reminds the reader of 1 Peter that “Christ the enabler is Christ the exemplar.”[4] The latter proceeds from the former in 1 Peter, and the two should not be separated. The metaphor of imitation need not be avoided, however, in order to protect 1 Peter from slipping into “works righteousness.” I propose to salvage the metaphor of imitation in 1 Peter by placing it in its proper first-century setting and then hearing the metaphor anew.

In antiquity, pictures of imitation were colored with the language of enablement. Students of a philosopher were enabled to imitate their teacher by being with him.[5] When they gazed upon their deities, devotees of the gods were transformed and empowered to imitate them when they returned to daily activities.[6] Those who studied carefully the lives of great men had implanted in them the desire to copy those worthy patterns in their own lives.[7] The imitation language in 1 Pet 2:21 fits within this milieu.

The metaphor should not be limited to this one unique passage in 1 Peter, however. The whole letter subtly builds a case that the narrative of the believer’s life is a type of the archetypal narrative of Christ’s life. It is a life enabled by the God who calls, and a life sustained by the God who gathers, heals, and shields. The metaphor of imitation in 1 Peter provides both the pattern to be copied and the power by which it can be accomplished.


[1] See as evidence Charles Sheldon’s bestseller In His Steps and the ubiquitous WWJD? paraphernalia based on the central question of his book, “What would Jesus do?”

[2] See John Elliott’s short survey of the reception of 1 Pet 2:21 in “Backward and Forward ‘In His Steps’: Following Jesus from Rome to Raymond and Beyond. The Tradition, Redaction, and Reception of 1 Peter 2:18-25” in Discipleship in the New Testament (ed. Fernando F. Segovia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 200.

[3] For example, Paul J. Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996), 199.

[4] “Backward and Forward,” 202.

[5] Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.2.24-28: “So long as they were with Socrates, they found him an ally who gave them strength to conquer their evil passions.” See Charles Talbert, Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5-7 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004), 39.

[6] Seneca (Ep. 94.42) cites Pythagoras: “our souls experience a change when we enter a temple and behold the images of the gods face to face.” See Talbert, Reading the Sermon on the Mount, 39-40 for other examples of transformation by vision of the gods.

[7] Plutarch writes in the introduction to his life of Pericles that morally good acts are a stimulus to the reader, and the intellectual perception of virtue inspires and impulse to imitate it.