John 11 : author's stylistic devices and Church vocabulary

Abstract

Prof. W. Wilkens, in his interesting article on Jn 11, has tried to delineate the whole iter behind text formation: he tried to go back to the very context that might have determined the putting together of various elements in the chapter as we now know it. We all know that the various necessities of the Church served as a creative stimulus to compile different literary material in a way that suited the author's intention. Thus we can study the text by trying to discover the various literary units of which it is made up; ultimately our effort could take us back to the ecclesial context wherein the Gospel, or this chapter in particular, might have originated. But then another alternative could be easily offered to the attentive reader who is all intent on the correct understanding of the text; the chapter in its entirety could be made the object of study with the eXfress purpose of coming to what is implicit behind the proper use of language.