Still More Dreadful Dilettantism from Discovery

Oh boy… this headline takes the prize for most rambunctiously unsupported historically – JESUS’ GREAT GRANDMOTHER IDENTIFIED.

What? When? Where? How? (Why?????)

The great grandmother of Jesus was a woman named Ismeria, according to Florentine medieval manuscripts analyzed by a historian. The legend of St. Ismeria, presented in the current Journal of Medieval History, sheds light on both the Biblical Virgin Mary’s family and also on religious and cultural values of 14th-century Florence. “I don’t think any other woman is mentioned” as Mary’s grandmother in the Bible, Catherine Lawless, author of the paper, told Discovery News. “Mary’s patrilineal lineage is the only one given.”

Florentines… that explains it…

Anyway, WHAT? What rubbish. Oh Catherine, what are you doing? What possible historical use can be made of a medieval manuscript concerning the reconstruction of the life of the ‘Historical Mary’ (copyright, Jim West)?

“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.”

Oh Catherine, please stick to history and leave the Bible alone. You’re bereft of knowledge concerning it. The Gospels have a lot to say about Mary (plenty anyway!). And her mother is never mentioned in its pages, much less granny or great granny or anyone else.

“According to the legend, Ismeria is the daughter of Nabon of the people of Judea, and of the tribe of King David,” wrote Lawless. She married “Santo Liseo,” who is described as “a patriarch of the people of God.” The legend continues that the couple had a daughter named Anne who married Joachim. After 12 years, Liseo died. Relatives then left Ismeria penniless. “I’m pretty sure one is supposed to believe that it was either her dead husband’s relatives or, less likely, her natal family,” Lawless said. “The family of the Virgin Mary would not have been cast in such a light.” Ismeria then goes to a hospital where she finds refuge. She is said to perform a miracle, filling a shell with fish to feed all of the hospital’s patients. After this miracle she prays to be taken away from the “vainglory of this world.” After God called her to “Paradise,” a rector at the hospital informed the Virgin Mary and Jesus of her passing. They departed for the hospital with the 12 Apostles, Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome and Mary Cleophas. There they paid honor to St. Ismeria.

So now legend is fodder for historical reconstruction? Have historians lost their minds? Is this the present state of the discipline? Please someone say no.

Discovery has become as disappointing as is humanly possible. Now they’re just pushing nonsense under the guise of scholarship.  (Via Antonio who, through no fault of his own, will be the bearer of the news that one day makes my head explode, literally).