Suppressing Chalcedon

Under weak Zeno, the Empire made its bid to smooth over the rufflings of Chalcedon AD 451. The Henotikon takes the novel course of not mentioning it. As if it were one of those councils nobody anymore remembers like Serdica.

Philip M Forness has uploaded his thesis to academia.edu; this will become his 2018 book Preaching Christology. The Aramaic script used here is Estrangel...ó. There exists a colon to title each version. The key to the thesis is Jacob/James of Serug. Pronounced "Serugh".

Jacob is a saint of longstanding with the Maronites, presently Catholic. It is through early-modern Maronites that we have most Jacob's work, and - more importantly - how Jacob's legacy got advertised to Latin Christendom as small-o orthodox, ensuring it got copied and translated out here. But in Late Antiquity, the Maronites really weren't Catholic. They sort-of affirmed Chalcedon but more-enthusiastically affirmed the Monotheletism under Heraclius. Forness stands to explain, why they jumped onto Heraclius' project.

Like other authors of dubious orthodoxy, lookin' atchyoo Ephrem, Jacob had a ready talent for the memra' form. He was able to take Zeno's Christology and translate it for a popular audience. This ensured a party, not yet a schism, of Ephesian fanatics. Of course after AD 496 under next emperor Anastasius they were simply the only recognised Roman church.

Others in this party included Zachariah of Mytilene (not yet the Pseudo- continuator, of which Forness is aware) and Symeon of Bet-Arsham. Forness brings them to illustrate how these authors used Henotic (if I may) jargon as a marker for their acceptance of Zeno's full text. Jacob used the same tropes.

At first that party also counted Philoxenos of Mabbug (Arabic Manbij). This one confronted patriarch Flavian II of Antioch, AD 509 (or AG 820), demanding miaphysitism and acceptance of the Henotikon. Two years later, Philoxenos went further than just dismissing Chalcedon; the Antiochenes would have to denounce it (one suspects, by Imperial command), and denounce pope Leo's "Tome". His ally Severus behaved similarly.

Come AD 518, Justin the Illyrian would succeed Anastasius. Justin appointed one Paul, perhaps a convert from Judaism, to be Antioch's Patriarch - under orders to reënforce Chalcedon in Syria. Their decisions led to Severus removing his bishops out of communion with Constantinople as well as just the city Rome.

Barḥadbeshabba (inconsistently-spelled, here) will claim that Narsai wrote his homilies to rival Jacob's out east. Although Forness doesn't bring Narsai himself for this.