An imitator
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G3402 names imitators, people who follow a received example. Paul twice asks the Corinthians to imitate him, first within his fatherly appeal in 1 Corinthians 4 and then with the explicit boundary, as I imitate Christ, at 11:1.
Reader summary
Full entry for μιμητής (G3402) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3402 names imitators, people who follow a received example. Paul twice asks the Corinthians to imitate him, first within his fatherly appeal in 1 Corinthians 4 and then with the explicit boundary, as I imitate Christ, at 11:1.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include imitators (3), imitate (1), to imitate (1), will imitate (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 4:16. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (2), 1 Thessalonians (2), Ephesians (1), Hebrews (1).
G3402 names imitators, people who follow a received example. Paul twice asks the Corinthians to imitate him, first within his fatherly appeal in 1 Corinthians 4 and then with the explicit boundary, as I imitate Christ, at 11:1. Ephesians 5:1 directs beloved children to imitate God, and the next verse explains the nearby pattern as walking in love after Christ's self-giving.
The Thessalonians became imitators of Paul, his coworkers, and the Lord when they received the message with Spirit-given joy amid affliction. They also became imitators of the churches in Judea by suffering from their own countrymen, a comparison about shared affliction that does not glorify abuse or authorize hostility toward any people. Hebrews 6:12 urges readers to imitate those who inherit the promises through faith and patience.
The noun therefore commends embodied examples, but never gives a leader unlimited authority over another person's conscience, personality, body, money, or safety. The stated Christward, loving, gospel-receiving, faithful, and patient patterns govern what is worthy of imitation.
Six governed uses move from bounded imitation of an apostle to imitation of God, reception of the gospel under affliction, solidarity with suffering churches, and patient faith.
You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
Christ's pattern explicitly governs the apostolic example.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord when you welcomed the message with the joy of the Holy Spirit, in spite of your great suffering.
Imitation is visible in receiving the message under pressure with Spirit-given joy.
Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children,
The command rests in beloved-child identity and opens into the call to walk in love.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Positive imitation of virtue or example; never pejorative in NT, always commendable modeling of character
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an imitator
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Read versean imitator
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
μιμητής is built from this root:
G3402 presents discipleship as learned through embodied patterns, not only abstract instruction. Paul can point to his conduct, but he places a decisive limit on the invitation: follow him as he follows Christ. Ephesians grounds imitation of God in being beloved children and explains it through a walk of self-giving love. Thessalonian imitation concerns receiving the gospel with Spirit-given joy and sharing the costly faithfulness of other churches.
Hebrews names faith and patience, not charisma or dominance, as the pattern to follow. These passages give churches permission to honor trustworthy examples while also testing them. No leader may use imitation language to demand copied personality, secrecy, financial loyalty, unsafe access, or obedience that contradicts Christ. Healthy examples direct attention beyond themselves and make the named virtue clearer.
1Cor.11.1
All six governed forms are nominative masculine plural nouns. The writers address or describe groups as imitators, emphasizing a shared pattern rather than a private technique. The noun identifies the people following an example; nearby genitives and comparison clauses identify whose example and which qualities are in view.
Scripture often teaches through faithful examples, yet even revered servants remain accountable to God's word. The New Testament concentrates the ultimate pattern in God and Christ while commending apostles and persevering believers as derivative examples. This canonical order prevents both contempt for mentors and the absolutizing of them.
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