The implied reader of Luke's gospel
Identifieur interne : 000B89 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000B88; suivant : 000B90The implied reader of Luke's gospel
Auteurs : A. M. OkorieSource :
- Religion and Theology [ 1023-0807 ] ; 1997.
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DOI: 10.1163/157430197X00166
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<p>220 The implied reader of Luke's gospel A M Okorie ABSTRACT The notion of implied reader is discussed with reference to modern theorists like Booth, Iser, Fowler and Prince. A description of the implied reader in Luke's gospel is then constructed from the clues that Luke's narrative provides. INTRODUCTION The concept of implied reader is nebulous in literary analyses. Even the critical endeavour to find the reader implied by a text falls prey to divergent assumptions, and there are disagreements about the way in which the reader implied by a text functions in the process of reading the text. Any preliminary study of the concept threatens to trap one in the quagmire of reader-response criticism. One may not even get beyond the task of choosing a name, as 'The reader' is variously labelled the ideal reader, the informed reader, the implied reader, the narratee, the authorial reader, the hypothetical reader, the optional reader, the intended reader, the competent reader, the super-reader, the composite reader, the average reader, the encoded reader, the actual reader, the flesh-and-blood reader, and so on.' For clarity this article will use the term 'implied reader,' with the reader's understanding that different critics may use the term with slightly different nuances. The article will focus on defining and explaining the concept of implied reader in order to develop a model that will yield some idea of the reader implied by Luke's Gospel. LITERARY THEORY AND METHOD The notion of implied reader has developed with the evolution of reading</p>
<p>221 theory. At first the implied reader was held to be an objective construct of the text, created by the author. As Wayne Booth wrote: 'The author creates, in short, an image of himself and another image of his reader; he makes his reader, as he makes his second self.'2 The text was seen as objective, lending its objectivity to constructs such as the implied reader and the implied author. Once the focus of the criticism left the authorial side of the text and began to look at the reader and reading, the text began to lose its objective nature. Critics found that there were many readings of any particular text, perhaps as many readings as there were readers. Wolfgang Iser's work played a large role in this move. The implied reader was no longer merely a construct of the author located in the text; the implied reader became a term which 'incorporates both the prestructuring of the potential meaning by the text, and the reader's actualization of this potential through the reading process'.3 The implied reader was located somewhere between the author, the text, and the reader. It remains a textual phenomenon, for the reader encounters the author within the textual arena. It is important to be reminded at this point that the implied reader does have existence apart from the real reader, even though the real reader plays a large part in conceptualising the implied reader. The real readers are free to assume, reject, or remain indifferent to the implied-audience roles offered to them. The success of biblical narrative will stand or fall with the reader's acceptance of an implied reader's role. Unless the real reader chooses to become, at least for the moment, the reader envisioned by the author in the process of composing the work, he will not be able to participate in the narrative. This inability to participate leads to a rejection of the author's beliefs, a rejection that would negate any effect of the biblical narrative. A reader would consider the narrative to be poorly written and ignore it completely. The implied reader, then, is someone created both by the author in the text and the reader in interaction with the text. It is also someone whom the reader is willing to become. Iser sees two basic, interrelated aspects to this role as it is offered to the reader: 'the reader's role as a textual structure, and the reader's role as a structured act' .4 Such intertextual concepts are inextricably linked. Through the text the implied author provides a network of response-inviting structures, which impel the reader to grasp the text. Such a network is most often provided through reliable commentary. Robert Fowler has catalogued seven types of reliable commentary in Mark which, with little or no modification, serve to illuminate Luke's narrative as well. S The first of these categories is a direct address to the reader. This type of commentary is much less prominent in Luke than in Mark. Such direct address, though, is obvious in the Lukan prologue and in other places such</p>
<p>222 as 3:23 and 23:12. What is more interesting in Luke is the distinct possibility that in many of the places where Jesus is addressing the crowd or the disciples, the content of his message seems to indicate that 'you' should be taken as a direct address to the reader as well as to the narrative characters. A second category of reliable commentary comprises statements which link one story with another and induce the reader to associate two different stories with each other. Often Luke will link stories thematically and force the reader to consider the present story in the light of all that has gone before. Fowler's third category is parenthetical constructions. In Mark these are normally used in an explanatory manner. Luke does not explain much in a parenthetical fashion to his readers. Only rarely does he rename a term (22:1) or locate a place (2:4;8:26). A fourth category involves the narrator's use of inside views in order to shape the reader's response to characters and events. What is doubly important about this narrative activity is the reader's willingness to allow the narrator's inside views and to be limited by the narrator in terms of what the reader can know. This particular interaction is important to didactic literature as an omniscient narrator 'guides the reader's construction to approximate to his own and in so doing defines him as someone who is being introduced to some knowledge beyond his ken: an initiate'.6 The implied reader in Luke must allow himself to be guided by inside views. The narrator knows what people are thinking and even what Jesus is thinking. In fact, there are times when the narrator knows that Jesus knows what others ire thinking. The responses of Jesus and others often make sense only because the narrator's inside view is reliable. A fifth category is another instance in which the text operates on two levels. Questions which are left unanswered or only partially answered in the :ext force the reader to find the answer. These questions also provide the :orrect questions for the reader. Many of Jesus' parables are told in answer to i question that has been asked by one of the disciples or someone in the :rowd. In a sense the parabolic answer is but a partial answer, forcing the - eader to interpret the parable in order to answer the question. There are also places in the text where a character will ask a question which has obvious 'elevance to the reader ( 1 z :41 ) and some of these questions may have been leep concerns of Luke's real audience. Reliable commentary is further provided by reliable characters. Three nstances of this in Luke occur in chapter 23. In 23:13-16 Pilate makes Jesus' innocence very clear. Both he and Herod have been involved in the rial procedure and they have not been able to find anything 'deserving leath' (23:15). This judgement is affirmed by the thief on the cross who idmits the justice of his own death but states that 'this man has done</p>
<p>223 nothing wrong' (23:41). Likewise, the centurion proclaims Jesus both innocent and righteous (23:47). Perhaps the most reliable commentary in this category comes through Jesus. From the very beginning Jesus is seen as a reliable character. His words, thoughts, and actions become the channel through which the implied author's norms and values are frequently communicated to the reader. There is no difference in the reader's eyes between the implied author and Jesus. They speak the same language and have the same concerns. Jesus is such a reliable character that the reader is forced to agree with Jesus even when Jesus confronts and rebukes him. The implied reader in Luke must be open to change, for only as the implied reader is led to see areas where change is needed will the real reader feel the full effect of the narrative. Perhaps an ideal reader would always see the world from Jesus' viewpoint, but it seems as if the full effect of Jesus' teaching depends at times on the implied reader's identification with such characters as Martha, Peter, and the Jewish audience of the parable of the Good Samaritan. A final category involves the use of background information and passages where material is introduced to be used later. This information functions as it does because one reads both prospectively and retrospectively. The repetition of a type-scene serves to alert the reader to similarities and differences which are being highlighted. Reliable commentary does not exhaust the clues to the implied reader, however. There are gaps in the narrative which enable the reader to bring both scenes and characters to life. Not everything is narrated. The implied reader must be able to live with such gaps and must have the knowledge to fill in those gaps for himself. In Luke the gaps provide the most frustration for the modem reader, as one finds oneself unable to fill in the gap and unwilling to allow it to remain unresolved. A striking Lukan example of this tension is Luke 23:17. More than one actual reader found Pilate's action inexplicable and filled in the gap by noting that the release of a prisoner was not merely customary but obligatory at Passover. The discipline of historical criticism is often exercised in these gaps. This discussion of the textual clues to the implied reader would be incomplete without some discussion of the narratee as developed by Gerald Prince. Prince would separate the narratee from what he terms the virtual reader in most cases, but it is fairly certain that the narratee and implied reader are almost the same in Luke. At the most basic level the 'zero-degree narratee' is able to read and understand the narrator; he knows what the words mean and how grammar works.' The 'zero-degree narratee' also has enough memory to be able to follow the course of the narrative. While these two characteristics are far too basic to characterise the implied reader of</p>
<p>224 Luke, they do serve as a foundation upon which any concept of implied reader must be built. Prince also offers a discussion of the signs which point to a narratteejimplied reader, many of which deal with reliable commentary. One of the unique signs, though, has to do with the use of comparisons or analogies.8 Much of Jesus' teaching in Luke is done through the use of comparisons and analogies and the implied reader must be able to understand the analogy in order to understand what is being taught. Although one can have some idea of what the implied reader is supposed to look like and some idea of where to look for him, the implied reader refuses to become domesticated. There is no infallible sign which claims to offer the essence of any particular text's implied reader. It also seems that there is no implied reader without a real reader to aid in the reconstruction of textual phenomena. For these reasons this article will attempt to form some composite picture based on the clues that Luke's narrative provides. For the most part any description of the implied reader will rest upon what the reader knows or needs to know. IMPLIED READER IN LUKE: A DESCRIPTION A relatively minor area of concern is the implied reader's knowledge about the Graeco-Roman world outside Palestine. In chapter 2 one finds that the reader is aware enough of both the Imperial government and the local Roman government for Luke to be able to date the birth of Jesus by the reign of Augustus and the first census. Again in 3:1 Luke uses the Imperial and local Roman government to date the rise of John the Baptist. The reader is also someone who is aware of what it means for a Roman soldier to be a centurion, for the centurion's response in 7:8 is dependent on some idea of the Roman army's structure. The implied reader's knowledge of the Graeco- Roman world does not, nevertheless, seem to be greater than one would expect of any citizen of the world in the first century. The references to Roman government are limited to Caesar and the local Roman governor. The evidence seems to indicate that the implied reader's interest lies in the area of the Middle East. If the reader is more concerned with Palestine than Rome, one would expect a great deal of knowledge about Jewish geography, government, and customs. The reader does seem, though, to have general knowledge of the Judean area. Luke is not given to locating or explaining geographical references. That the reader's knowledge is general and not specific is indicated in that Luke usually provides a provincial reference as well as naming the city (2:4; 4:31 ) . Luke does not locate the Lake of Gennesaret (5:1), but he does have to locate the land of the Gergesenes by referring to</p>
<p>225 Galilee (8:26). In the same way the reader is familiar with Jerusalem and the general area but must locate Emmaus (24:13 ) . The reader appears to have little or no problem with Jesus' route to Jerusalem by going 'between Samaria and Galilee' ( 17:11 ) . The implied reader of Luke is also aware of the local Jewish history. Two of the three dating passages (1:5; 3:lff) use local Jewish government to pinpoint the date of Zechariah's vision and John's ministry. The reader likewise appears able to recognise names from Israel's history and their significance without any explanation. The narrative is populated with names and references from Israel's history, particularly toward the beginning of the Gospel: Elijah (1:17), the 'throne of David' and 'house of Jacob' (1:32-33), the covenant (1:72), Abraham (1:73), and the 'city of David' (2:4). After these initial chapters, though, the references to figures from the past diminish sharply, although they do not disappear completely. Thus the implied reader is aware of the Old Testament, as Luke not only refers to the events of the Old Testament but also quotes from it. Further, in the Jewish and local customs the reader is very aware of the rituals involved in temple worship from the very beginning ( 1: 8-10) . Zechariah's division is mentioned and Luke uses such terms as the 'hour of incense' with no need for explanation. Likewise, the references to circumcision in 2:21 and to Joseph and Mary's custom of attending Passover in Jerusalem every year (2:41 ) serve to highlight the characterisa- tion of Joseph and Mary as devout Jews rather than inform the implied reader about Jewish customs. In addition, the detailed description of worship in the synagogue (4:16-20) serves to heighten the drama of the scene for one who is familiar enough with worship practices to understand what Jesus' actions signify. The implied reader is similarly knowledgeable about the Law and the ways in which it had impact on the religious life of Israel. In 2:22-24 Luke quotes the Law in order to note the propriety with which Jesus' parents presented their new-born baby. The same type of effect holds in 5:14 and 17:14 as Jesus commands the lepers to fulfil the Law of Moses. Jesus is affirmed by such public religious gestures. Finally, the reader knows the importance of the 'curtain' in 2 3 :4 5 . This is a gap for the real reader today, as is evidenced by the theories which have been propounded as to the location of such a curtain and the significance of its splitting. If it was a gap for Luke's original audience, they were perhaps better able to provide an explanation. There are at least two areas of Jewish religious life that seem limited in the knowledge of Luke's implied reader. The first of these concerns the religious sects of Judaism. While the reader is well aware of the Pharisees and willing</p>
<p>226 to accept the narrator's negative characterisation of them, the reader must be reminded that the Sadducees are 'those who say there is no resurrection' (20:27). There is likewise some indication that the reader was aware of the Passover but unaware that it was the 'Feast of Unleavened Bread' (22:1 ) . Along with the implied reader's general knowledge of geography, religious practices and government, one may see that the implied reader has a great deal of familiarity with the patterns of everyday life in Palestine. For example, in 1:27 Luke's statement about the relationship between Mary and Joseph demands some knowledge of wedding customs. The same holds true for Jesus' statement in 5:34ff where he uses the wedding feast as an analogy for his relationship with his disciples. Another area of knowledge touches on the relationship between tax collectors and sinners (5:30; etc). The reader is not surprised to hear these two groups of people mentioned in the same breath, nor is one surprised at the Pharisees' question to Jesus' disciples. The reader is cognisant of other social relationships, too. On the occasion of the anointing (7: 3 6ff) the reader is aware of the common procedure for entertaining a guest and the seriousness of Jesus' charge against the defaulting host. A second social relationship that the reader knows about is the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. This knowledge is necessary for the reader to understand the parable of the Good Samaritan ( 10:29ff). To be able to participate fully in both the narrative and the parable the implied reader must be able to see the aspect of reversal that comes with the introduction of a Samaritan hero. A final area of knowledge of Jewish and local customs concerns the reader's knowledge of historical events contemporary with Jesus' ministry. Luke does not explain the 'evil things' that Herod has done (3:19), nor does he go into much detail about the story of Herod and Herodias. Luke assumes much of this knowledge on the reader's part. In 13: Iff Luke does not stop to tell the story of 'the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices', preferring to allow the reader to fill that gap with his or her own knowledge. The same is true of the incident of the tower in Siloam mentioned by Jesus (13 :4). Verse Z 3 :12 offers an aside to the implied reader, which gives the reason for a situation already known by the reader. Pilate and Herod were friends; Luke explains their friendship in the context of their mutual dealings with Jesus. Another evidence of the reader's knowledge of historical events is Pilate's act of releasing Barabbas and his reason for doing so (23:18ff). Luke does not give a reason at this point (forcing the later reader to fill in a gap textually) for Barabbas' release, but he is obliged to tell the reader who Barabbas was and why he was in prison. Verse 2 3 :19 indicates</p>
<p>227 that the reader knew Barabbas' name and that he had been released, but knew very little else about him. Again, Luke assumes that the reader knows of an appearance by Jesus to Simon, for he mentions such an appearance (24:34) without any other hint in the narrative. This creates a gap which the implied reader must be able to fill with knowledge gained extratextually. Luke's narrative not only gives some idea of the knowledge of his implied reader, but also offers some idea of the needs of his implied reader. This is particularly clear in those passages where Jesus' direct address to the disciples and the crowd tends to function on two levels, where 'you' means reader as well as disciples. The reader's first need is for assurance. The beginning and end of Luke's Gospel make this prominent, and even explicit. In the prologue (1 :4) Luke states that the purpose of his writing is that Theophilus might 'know the truth' of things he had already been taught. This purpose informs Luke's style, his ordered account, and his selection of material. It is prominent once again in chapter 24 as Luke offers his reader not one but six witnesses to the resurrection (the women, 24:10; the two disciples from Emmaus, 24:33; Peter, 24:34; Jesus' body and hands, 24:39-40; Jesus' eating, 24:42-43; and the Scriptures, 24:44ff). The implied reader is also in need of the teaching Jesus offers. Probably the most significant need is teaching about riches and the relationship between the rich and the poor. It is certainly a major concern of Luke's, which begins with the Magnificat and reaches a climax in chapter 6. Prom 6:20-45 Jesus teaches the disciples and the reader about the proper way to handle money and the proper attitude to lending and giving. Luke continues this theme throughout his entire Gospel. A second teaching need concerns prayer. The question of a disciple in 11:1 1 is echoed by the implied reader. Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray and tells them to be persistent in prayer, things which the reader needs to hear (l8:lff). Jesus similarly teaches the disciples about persecution (l2:llff) and offers a word to both the disciples and the reader. In the same fashion Jesus teaches about repentance (l3:lff), salvation (13:23), discipleship (14:25ff), humility (14:7ff;22:24ff), and the eschaton (21:5-36). The amount of teaching in Luke is tremedous and covers a range of topics necessary for the implied reader to know in the process of being initiated into the Christian fellowship. CONCLUSION Luke's implied reader is able to read and understand Greek, in both literary</p>
<p>228 and Semitised forms. The reader is aware of the general outlines of Roman governmental history and the specific governmental workings of the Middle East. The Jewish religious practices of the synagogue and the Temple are familiar to him and he is knowledgeable about Israel's history and its dependence on the Law, both ceremonially and pragmatically. The reader is cognisant of Jewish religious life but there are gaps in his knowledge of some technical terms and Jewish sects. For the most part Luke's reader has a good grasp of local customs and social relations, as well as historical events of first half of the first century. The reader is certainly aware of some traditions already concerning Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Perhaps the most telling characteristic of Luke's implied reader is his need to be asssured of the truth of what has been taught about Jesus and to be taught even more, especially about the use of possessions. This characteristic of neediness is the clue to the success of Luke's implied reader. The contemporary reader can still identify with the implied reader as one who needs to be assured and taught, even if some of the historical knowledge may be unavailable. In this regard the implied reader transcends the text, yet the real reader is drawn into the text, into participation. NOTES 1 Robert M Fowler, 'Who is "the reader" of Mark's Gospel?' in SBL Seminar Papers: 1983, Chico: Scholars Press. 1983, p 31. 2 Wayne C Booth, The rhetoric of fiction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961, p 138. 3 Wolfgang Iser, The implied reader, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974, p xii. 4 Wolfgang Iser, The act of reading : a theory of aesthetic response, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, p 34. 5 Robert M Fowler, Loaves and fishes: the function of the feeding stories in the Gospel of Mark, Chico: Scholars Press, 1981, pp 157-170. 6 Horst Ruthrof, The reader's construction of narrative, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, p 128. 7 Gerald Prince, 'Introduction to the study of the narrattee', in Reader-response criticism: from formalism to post-structuralism, ed Jane Tompkins, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1.980, p 10. 8 Ibid. n 14. Dr A M Okorie Department of Religions University of Ilorin Ilorin Nigeria</p>
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