Lulyane

I had problems interpreting some parts in that John bar Penkaye translation, or “translation” as the professionals might justifiably write. I had a devil of a time with Lulyane, a heretic whom John places in Armenia. Or was it l-Ulyana? Whoever it was, I could not find him in the early Armenian church-histories, so I just transcribed the thing and hoped for the best.

So: Grigory Kessel, “A List… of Abraham Shekwana”, Parole de l’Orient 36 (2011), 39-65; name #25. It has a footnote: #41.

The available evidence that I managed to find is that he is commemorated as a malpana (Doctor) on a par with Ephrem, Narsai, Abraham, John and Michael (Mingana Syr 542, see MINGANA 1933, 996). Since all of the mentioned names are related to the School of Nisibis, I assume that he was also somehow related to that School and thus one might expect that certain exegetical traditions were attributed to him; however he is not mentioned in VÖÖBUS 1965. On the other hand, one [ed.: Kessel credits Alexei Muraviev] might wonder if the name stands for the so-called “Julius Romance” (in which the name of the Roman emperor is rendered as Yulyanos). If so, then it could be a token of the survival of the text in the East Syriac tradition, which otherwise is extant in a unique manuscript of the 6^th-7^th c. Furthermore, Fiey has proposed to see in Lulyane’ a Syriac monk Julian Saba [FIEY 1963, 391: IV^e siècle].

Fiey's footnote:

From the sources quoted in BHO., p. 123, an Arabic summary can be added in Shuhada', v. 2, p. 33-41. Formerly Julien Saba was studied by ASSEMANI, in B. O., v. 1, p. 433, recently by P. A.-J. FESTUGIÈRE, in Antioche païenne et chrétienne (Paris: 1959), p. 247-252, 259, 291, and by A. VÖÖBUS, in History of Asceticism, v. 2 (C.S.C.O., t. 197 / Subsidia 17, Louvain: 1960), p. 42-51. See Comm. martyr. rom., p. 231 (9 June).

Kessel here informs us that Lulyane’ as a real name was comprehensible to the East Syrians. [UPDATE 2/10 - Ishoyahb #28 is addressed to a contemporary "Lulyano". UPDATE 3/27: Balad's diptych: Vosté 150 > Mingana 564 > Brock 1971 10.1484/J.ABOL.4.02898.] John bar Penkaye, moreover, enters his testimony that this man was a real figure of post-Ephesian eastern Christian thought. John was well aware of the name Yulyanos - applied to that apostate Emperor, to whom Memre XIV devotes a long rant which I have (so far) spared you. Further, if “Lulyane” be a mistake for “Yulyane”, this mistake held consistently, for all John’s known copyists.

Muraviev’s thesis is hereby weakened, to the tentative (albeit gracious) extent Kessel has entertained it; Fiey's thesis crumbles with it. New speculation is warranted. That… this blog, can do.

Propose that Lulyane belongs to the minority-report in Nisibis which allowed for Chalcedon’s correction to Ephesus – usually associated with Henana of Adiabene (pdf). This would explain how one faction may include Lulyane as an heir to Narsai but other factions dismissed him.

CASE CLOSED 2/1: Mar-Emmanuel -

The person referred to as ‘Lulian’ must be identical to the person of the same name who is mentioned in Babai’s Christological work On Union. Babai states that Lulian had argued that “Our Lord did not take [i.e. united with] this mortal human body which suffers and dies, but [He took] that [body which] Adam [possessed] before he sinned, when he was immortal and nonsuffering.” Babai then adds that “Lulian, and the son of his father, Severus [of Antioch, d. 538 A.D.], were from two handmaids.” [ See Babai the Great, Liber de Unione, ed. and trans. Arthur Vaschalde, CSCO 79-80, (Paris: CORPUS, 1915), III, ch. 9.] This evidence places Lulian firmly in the period before the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.