Neṣḥānā redated

Last week, Corinne Jouanno reviewed Muriel Dubié's Alexandre le Grand en syriaque. It starts with a romantic novel in Greek ascribed to Callisthenes. The delta version - now lost so "*δ" - is what got translated into Edessene Syriac, probably AD sixth-century / AG ninth-. This (also-lost) translation spawned a wide literature of not!Alexander, retroactively converted to Oriental Orthodoxy, all over that Christendom. The same version entered Miaphysite Sinjar, which "Pseudo-Methodius" apocalypse subsequently conquered the West.

Kevin van Bladel will be interested in the "Mimro" (which as oriental should be Memrā) ascribed to Jacob of Serugh, and in the "Exploit" which is the Neṣḥānā (or plural Neṣḥānë if syame). These contributed to sura 18 and enjoyed Arabic translations of their own. He'd assumed that the Neṣḥānā was Heraclius' propaganda and perhaps that Memrā was a reaction against that. This wouldn't leave much time for sura 18 to react to either; hence why van Bladel's thesis got so much notoriety. Keeping in mind: Pseudo-Methodius' own ink won't get much drying-time before getting out into Armenian, Greek, and Latin.

If I am reading the review correctly - it is in French - Dubié is arguing that both belong to an Iran under that Hunnish threat. So they're sixth-century, not seventh. The outremer Christians hope for an Alexander to rescue them - Justinian or Maurice, perhaps. That this rescue did in fact come (sort of) is an irony of history, one of the few vaticini which came true.