Profiling Peter - Applying a Modern Personality Test to an Ancient Character
If you’ve ever gone through the interview process of some of the bigger companies, you were probably given some sort of a personality test… even if you didn’t realize it. The tech company I worked for liked Myers-Briggs. We all knew our MTBI, and most of us could ascertain the MTBI of our coworkers in a matter of minutes. As a salesperson, I was trained to ascertain my client's MTBI as quickly as possible and to tailor my responses to what works best within that person’s framework. Yeah… companies do this, and probably your AI Chatbot is doing it as well.
For those of you who don’t know, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a popular self-report questionnaire that categorizes individuals into 16 distinct personality types based on how they perceive the world and make decisions. Developed from Carl Jung’s theories, it identifies preferences across four dichotomies, resulting in a four-letter type (e.g., INTJ, ESFP) used for self-awareness and team development. The four core dichotomies are:
Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I): Measures whether you prefer to focus your energy outward on people and activity, or inward on ideas and memories.
Sensing (S) - Intuition (N): Focuses on whether you rely on concrete information (facts) or theoretical possibilities.
Thinking (T) - Feeling (F): Determines if you make decisions based on objective logic or personal values/emotions.
Judging (J) - Perceiving (P): Reflects your preference for a planned, organized life versus a flexible, spontaneous one.
The 4 Letter combination of these determines a personality type.
So we applied this concept to one of the best know apostles in the Bible, Peter, to see if we could determine is MTBI and maybe get a better understanding of Peter as a person.
It also is a great way to ascertain the validity of the gospels. Peter is not a fictitious character. His MTBI is remarkably consistent and that, at least in my eyes, lends credibility to the Gospels as a historical eyewitness journey with Christ.
Notes for Profiling Peter
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