[SunkenCiv]

The legend of St. Ismeria marks a shift in belief, as sanctity was previously more often earned by blood martyrdom rather than piety. [iStockphoto]

[JoeProBono]

[nkycincinnatikid]

Nancy Pelosi?

[count-your-change]

And the name of Noah’s wife has been found....Mrs. Noah!

[Cincinna]

Thanks, Civ
Great article! Beautiful picture. A keeper for my files.

[Outlaw Woman]

Oh Please....

[grey_whiskers]

Limerick University
Is given to Diversity
Catherine Lawless
is hardly flawless
No Immaculates in her city...

Cheers!

[dangus]

>> “Mary herself is mentioned very little in the Bible,” added Lawless, a lecturer in history at the University of Limerick. “The huge Marian cult that has evolved over centuries has very few scriptural sources.” <<

That’s a very weird statement. She gets more coverage in the bible than any other New Testament figure, besides Christ himself, St. Peter and St. Paul. Luke writes his entire 3-chapter infancy narrative centered around her; there’s Matthew’s infancy narrative; The symbolic figure of Revelations 12 is modelled on her; there’s the wedding at Cana, the foot of the cross, the witnessing of the Resurrection...

Whereas 9 of the 11 apostles get no more than one passage about them; and the majority of those get scarcely more than a name message.

[Publius6961]

How idiotic can "scholars" get?
How can a medieval legend shed light on historic geneology a thousand years plus prior?
Sounds like an oxymoron to me.

[wildbill]

I’m not a religious scholar, but in the ancient Jewish tradition, I believe one of the base criteria for the coming Messiah was that he would come from the House of David, eg. be descended from a royal bloodline. For a person to be credible Messiah to the masses of Jews of the day, it would have to have been a known and provable fact.

To me, the most interesting part of Dr. James Tabor’s remarkable book, “The Jesus Dynasty” is his exposition of the necessity of the Messiah to have descended from the House of David and how Mary fulfilled that requirement.

Perhaps the story of Ismeria, real or not, was simply more of the ‘vetting’ of Jesus as the Messiah by proving his mother Mary was of the House of David bloodline.

This is totally separate from the theories that a royal bloodline continued after Jesus through a child from a relationship with Mary Magdalene.