Tyndale Bulletin 69.1 (2018) 111-131 ETHICS AND IMITATIO CHRISTI IN 1 JOHN A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE Mavis M. Leung (
[email protected]) Summary This paper focuses on one of the ethical features of 1 John, namely ‘the imitation of Christ’. It argues that this ethical feature is related to the believers’ identity and vocation as the people of God. Just as in the OT Israel is obliged to reflect God’s nature in everyday life, the believers must take on Jesus’ character as their character and follow in his footsteps to surrender one’s own life for the benefits of others. The result of this paper indicates that the weight of the Jewish ethical thoughts in the formation of Johannine ethics is more important than often acknowledged. 1. Introduction The last two decades have seen a surge of scholarly interest in topics surrounding Johannine ethics or ethos. Recent publications are in general more affirmative of the place and importance of the (implicit) ethics in John’s Gospel and Epistles,1 in contrast to some previous 1 E.g. Cornelis Bennema, Mimesis in the Johannine Literature: A Study in Johannine Ethics (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017); Jan G. van der Watt, ‘Reciprocity, Mimesis and Ethics in 1 John’ in Erzählung und Briefe im johanneischen Kreis, ed. Uta Poplutz and Jörg Frey (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016): 257-76; Jörg Frey, ‘Ethical Traditions, Family Ethos, and Love in the Johannine Literature’ in Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Graeco-Roman Contexts, ed. Jan Willem van Henten and Joseph Verheyden (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2013): 167-203; Jan G.