The Imitation of the “Great Man” in Antiquity: Paul’s Inversion of a Cultural Icon

Abstract

The centrality of honor culture in the Greek East and the Latin West ensured that the imitation of the qgreat manq was a vital dimension of civic ethics in antiquity; but, inexplicably, this has been little discussed by classicists and New Testament scholars alike. In concentrating on the evidence relating to the civic context of imitation, the authors propose that New Testament scholars (with the exception of F.W. Danker and E.A. Judge) have overlooked the important qcivicq band of literary, documentary, and visual evidence, a methodological oversight of some importance, given that Paul's converts were urban believers. The chapter demonstrates how Paul's gospel interacts with the iconic status of the qgreat manq in Greco-Roman antiquity. It argues that Saint Paul undermined the status of the qgreat manq in antiquity by linking a cruciform model of discipleship to the corporate mimesis that the apostle sponsored within his house churches. Keywords:civic ethics; Greco-Roman antiquity; New Testament scholars; Saint Paul