Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary
μιμος
The noun μιμος (mimos) means imitator (hence our English words mime and mimic), which is someone or something that duplicates the form and doings of an original. In Greek, an imitator is a comic actor on a stage, who makes fun of whoever he mocks. In Hebrew thought, however, being an imitator is the highest office attainable in creation.
The Hebrew origin story crucially differs from that of virtually all other traditions, in that most others image our complex world to have been accomplished by a few well-aimed orders of a Creator, whereas the God of the Bible established the whole of creation first as a void and formless blob of "waters", which then was given the basic ability to respond to the Spirit that hovered over it (Genesis 1:2).
In the Bible, God created the whole of reality like a seed that contained all the information needed to extrapolate itself into the grandiose universe we have today. That basic data we call Natural Law — which modern scientists believe (there's no proof yet) is compressible into one single statement from which everything, all definition and all action, ultimately derives (Colossians 1:15-17). The Bible calls this fundamental creative data the Word, and as the embodiment of this Word, Jesus famously summed up "the whole law and the prophets" by stating: "in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Matthew 7:12), which essentially involves an act of imitation.
Imitation sits at the very core of humanity. Without it, there's no language, and thus no law or a human society that is more complex than anything animals have. Since all thought is word-based, one might say that without imitation, there is no human consciousness, and thus certainly no awareness of the Creator. In a way, creation is like a slowly demystifying mirror that becomes ever more reflective of the divine nature (which is entire oneness: 2 Peter 1:4, John 17:21-23, Ephesians 4:3-6), and so creation must ultimately become the mirror in which the Creator is perfectly reflected (1 Corinthians 13:12, Hebrews 1:3), so that God calls creation as much as creation calls God (Psalm 42:7).
It's officially a mystery where this noun μιμος (mimos) may have come from, but here at Abarim Publications we would guess it was imported into the Greek language basin along with the alphabet (see here for more of these Hebrew roots of Greek words). To us it seems obvious that the original of our word is the Hebrew noun מים (mayim), waters.
Our noun μιμος (mimos), imitator, is not used in the New Testament, but from it derive the following important words:
- The verb μιμεομαι (mimeomai), meaning to imitate or mimic. This verb is used 4 times, see full concordance, and from it in turn derives:
- The noun μιμητης (mimetes), which describes someone engaged in the act of imitating. The difference between this noun and the parent noun μιμος (mimos) is not directly clear, although the parent noun appears to describe a mechanical and involuntary mirroring, whereas the verb μιμεομαι (mimeomai) suggests a conscious analysis and willful alignment. This would in turn suggest that our noun μιμητης (mimetes) rather describes someone who considers and selects who he wants to emulate and thus unify with.
Note the crucial difference between being an imitator and being a religious fanatic: a religious fanatic pursues orthodoxy (lower case, not upper case), the one and only true dogma, a fixed code that he copy-pasted from some teacher whom he obeys. An imitator on the other hand, wants to attain the same freedom he sees someone else soar through the figurative clouds with. Said otherwise: when an orthodox becomes somehow convinced that John Coltrane's Giant Steps is the greatest song ever made, he will reject all other music, and study night and day to be able to reproduce some specific recording of that marvelous song. An imitator with the same conviction of the genius of Giant Steps will study musical theory, the greater historical and cultural context in which Giant Steps was conceived, plus all sorts of genres and all manner of musicians, until he achieves the same governed freedom (ελευθερια, eleutheria) that allowed John Coltrane to reach his heights. An imitator will become Coltrane's fellow and fly with him (Ephesians 2:6, John 15:15). An orthodox (lower case, not upper case) will never be more than a boring rip-off, who makes no contribution to the musical endeavor, and will never truly understand what John Coltrane expressed in his song.
This important noun is used 7 times; see full concordance. From it in turn derives:- Together with the preposition συν (sun), meaning together or with: the noun συμμιμητης (summimetes), meaning a fellow imitator: someone who is part of a group of people who all imitate the same original (Philippians 3:17 only).
- The noun μιμητης (mimetes), which describes someone engaged in the act of imitating. The difference between this noun and the parent noun μιμος (mimos) is not directly clear, although the parent noun appears to describe a mechanical and involuntary mirroring, whereas the verb μιμεομαι (mimeomai) suggests a conscious analysis and willful alignment. This would in turn suggest that our noun μιμητης (mimetes) rather describes someone who considers and selects who he wants to emulate and thus unify with.