“The Thoughts of Many Hearts Shall Be Revealed”: Listening in on Lukan Interior Monologues

Abstract

A constant refrain in contemporary NT studies is that ancient people were anti-introspective. I contend that this view has caused us to overlook a significant aspect of early Christian witness, namely, importance of one says to one's soul. Several times in Luke's Gospel, characters' are through literary device of interior monologue, yet these inner speeches remain underexplored. In this article, I begin by describing view that ancient societies eschewed interiority; subsequent section discusses interior speech in Hellenistic and ancient Jewish literature. I then read six Lukan interior monologues from parables in light of these comparanda. As in ancient Hellenistic narratives, Luke's interior monologues depict thinker's inner turmoil in a crisis moment; they also provide narrative articulations of Jewish warnings against foolish self-talk. Rhetorically, interior monologues in first four parables foster readerly identification with thinker; readers who accept this invitation will experience corrections implied by narrative rhetoric. In latter two parables, however, narratorial guidance indicates that audience is not meant to identify with thinking characters. In these cases, inner speech introduces dramatic irony, privileging reader over thinker. Overall, I aim to show that Luke's interior monologues challenge dominant paradigm of anti-introspective Mediterranean self. Our focus should be on kinds, degrees, and functions of interiority and introspection in ancient texts, rather than on a generic portrait of ancient societies as anti-introspective.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In an article titled, Soul's Comeback: Immortality and Resurrection in Early Christianity (2010), Francois Bovon pushes back against a current trend in studies of early Christianity: tendency to emphasize external, corporeal aspect of ancient self-the body (...)-at expense of inner, immaterial dimension of ancient self-the (...).1 Bovon implores scholars to avoid letting pendulum swing too far to either side of psyche/soma divide, lest we miss a crucial component of early Christian witness.2 The scope of this article is more modest than Bovon's,3 but it similarly pushes back against a current consensus in which scholarly pendulum has again swung too far toward an unhelpful extreme: in this case, not between poles of and body but between poles of so-called introspective individualistic societies and antiintrospective collectivistic societies.4A constant refrain in contemporary NT studies is that ancient people lacked a concept of interior life; they were anti-introspective.5 I contend that this view has caused us to overlook a significant aspect of early Christian witness, namely, importance of one says to one's soul or in one's heart.6 The Third Gospel in particular demonstrates interest in an individual's inner life, in four respects:1. In importance of paying (...) to how (...) one hears (...) God's word (8:18).7 For Luke, this 'hearing' is ... an inner, consensual attitude.82. In Jesus' attention to is on inside (..., 11:40). Contrary to Bruce Malina's assertion that what counted [in ancient society] was went on outside of a person,9 Jesus teaches that those who focus on outside alone are fools (..., 11:39-40),10 and that good and evil come from heart (..., 6:45).3. In fulfillment of Simeon's early prophecy that, as a result of Jesus, the of many will be revealed ( ..., 2:35). Due to primacy effect, Luke's implied reader11 is prompted to expect thoughts of people's hearts to play a role in ensuing narrative.124. Ιn emphasis on aligning one says internally with divine perspective (as expressed by Lukan narrator). …