An IMITATOR — the root of 'mimic', 'mime' and 'mimesis', and in the ancient world an unembarrassed word for how learning actually worked: a craft or a philosophy was acquired by copying someone who had it. Paul uses it of himself without apology ('become imitators of me, as I am of Christ', 1 Corinthians 11:1) and here in its earliest instance, 1 Thessalonians 1:6, in an order that is not the pious one — imitators 'of us, and of the Lord'. ⚠ The point is not self-regard: in a world with no New Testament to hand anyone, the available copy of the thing was a person. The chain runs on at 2:14, where the Thessalonians become imitators of the congregations in Judea. → first discussed at 1 Thessalonians 1:6