Magdala

a city on the west side of the sea of Galilee, near Dalmanutha; Jesus, after the miracle of the seven loaves, being said by St. Matthew to have gone by ship to the coasts of Magdala, Mat 15:39; and by St. Mark, to “the parts of Dalmanutha,” Mar 8:10. Mr. Buckingham came to a small village in this situation called Migdal, close to the edge of the lake, beneath a range of high cliffs, in which small grottoes are seen, with the remains of an old square tower, and some larger buildings, of rude construction, apparently of great antiquity. Migdol implies a tower, or fortress; and this place, from having this name particularly applied to it, was doubtless, like the Egyptian Migdol, one of considerable importance; and may be considered as the site of the Migdal of the Naphtalites, as well as the Magdala of the New Testament.

Mag´dala, a town mentioned in Mat 15:39, and the probable birthplace of Mary Magdalene, i.e. Mary of Magdala. It must have taken its name from a tower or castle, as the name signifies. It was situated on the Lake Gennesareth, but it has usually been placed on the east side of the Lake, although a careful consideration of the route of Christ before He came to, and after He left, Magdala, would show that it must have been on its western shore. This is confirmed by the Jerusalem Talmud (compiled at Tiberias), which several times speaks of Magdala as being adjacent to Tiberias and Hamath, or the hot-springs. It was a seat of Jewish learning after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Rabbins of Magdala are often mentioned in the Talmud. A small Muslim village, bearing the name of Mejdel, is now found on the shore of the lake about three miles north by west of Tiberias; and although there are no ancient ruins, the name and situation are very strongly in favor of the conclusion that it represents the Magdala of Scripture. This was probably also the Mig-dal-el, in the tribe of Naphtali, mentioned in Jos 19:38.

The ancient Migdal-el in the border of Naphtali, Jos 19:38 ; now a small Turkish village called Medjel. It lay near the shore of the Sea of Galilee, at its most westerly point, three miles northwest of Tiberias; in the southern part of a small plain on which stood also Capernaum at the other end, and Dalmanutha in its immediate vicinity, Mat 15:39 ; Mar 8:10 . Mary Magdalene was born, or resided, at Magdala; and it was the seat of a Jewish school after Jerusalem was destroyed.\par

Mag’dala. (a tower). The chief manuscripts and versions exhibit the name as Magadan, as in the Revised Version. Into the limits of Magadan, Christ came by boat, over the Lake of Gennesareth, after his miracle of feeding the four thousand on the Mountain of the eastern side, Mat 15:39, and from thence, he returned in the same boat to the opposite shore.

In the parallel narrative of St. Mark, Mar 8:10, we find the "parts of Dalmanutha," on the western edge of the Lake of Gennesareth. The Magdala, which conferred her name on Mary the Magdalene one of the numerous migdols, that is, towers, which stood in Palestine, was probably the place, of that name, which is mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud, as near Tiberias, and this again, is as probably the modern el-Mejdel, a miserable little Muslim village, of twenty huts on the water’s edge at the southeast corner of the plain of Gennesareth. It is now the only inhabited place on this plain.

In Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts (Mat 15:39)" Magadan" is the reading. A town or region to which our Lord came after feeding the 4,000. "Dalmanutha" is in Mark’s Gospel (Mar 8:10). The name Mary "Magdalene" shows there was a "Magdala" probably a later form of Migdol, "a tower." El Mejdel on the western border of the lake of Galilee, an hour’s journey N. of Tiberius, now represents Magdala, and is about the position where our Lord is thought to have been after the miracle, it is near a beautiful plain and a hill rising about 400 ft., with overhanging limestone rock honeycombed with caves. The Jews used "Magdala" to denote a person with twisted or platted hair; a usage of women of loose character.

Magdala (măg’da-lah), tower. In the chief manuscripts and versions the name is given as "Magadan." Magdala is found only in Mat 15:39. The parallel passage, Mar 8:10, has the "parts of Dalmanutha," on the western edge of the lake. The two regions or districts were probably near each other. The Magdala from which Mary Magdalene was named is perhaps identical with Migdal-el, Jos 19:38, and may be the modern el-Mejdel.

[Mag’dala]

City on the west of the Lake of Tiberias. Only once mentioned (Mat 15:39, where some MSS read Magadan), except as the birth-place of Mary Magdalene. Identified with el Mejdel, 32° 50’ N, 35° 31’ E.

MAGDALA.—The word ‘Magdala’ occurs once only in the Textus Receptus of the NT (Mat 15:39). In B and א the reading is ‘Magadan.’ This reading is followed by Tisch., Alford, WH [Note: H Westcott and Hort’s text.] , and is adopted in the Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 . In the parallel narrative in St. Mark’s Gospel (Mar 8:10) the place to which Christ came is designated as ‘the parts of Dalmanutha’ (wh. see). These names evidently refer to the same district, but not necessarily to the same place. They seem to have been in such proximity, however, that the adjacent district might be named from either. With respect to their location, various sites on the south and south-east border of the Lake of Galilee have been suggested, but none of them can be regarded as satisfactory. There is no site in this locality whose name bears any resemblance to Magadan; and the only place which suggests a resemblance to Dalmanutha is a village known as ed-Delhemiyeh, near the mouth of the Jarmuk river. Apart from the name there is nothing else in or about the place to justify its identification with the town to which St. Mark refers in the passage above cited. Caspari and Edersheim would place Magadan within the limits of the Decapolis, but do not assign it to any definite location. The suggestion of Ewald that its site is identical with Megiddo, on the southern border of the Esdraelon plain, does not harmonize with the facts of the narrative, and apparently rests upon a very slender foundation.

In the light of all the information attainable at the present time, the probabilities strongly favour the view, which has long been held by eminent writers and explorers, that the district in which these places were located was on the western shore of the Lake of Galilee, and that Magadan represents the village now known as el-Mejdel, the traditional site of the town of Mary Magdalene. While the words in their present form are not identical, they may be regarded as variations of the same name. Stanley’s suggestion is worthy of note in this connexion: ‘It may be observed that, as Herodotus (ii. 159) turns Megiddo into Magdalum, so some Manuscripts in Mat 15:39 turn Magdala into Magadan’ (SP [Note: P Sinai and Palestine.] 451, note 1). It has been suggested also by another writer, as a possible explanation of the substitution of one name for the other, ‘that owing to the familiar recurrence of the word Magdalene, the less known name was absorbed in the better, and Magdala usurped the name and possibly also the position of Magadan’ (art. ‘Magdala’ in Smith’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] ii. p. 1734). On the supposition that Magadan was on or adjacent to the site of el-Mejdel, the probable location of Dalmanutha is at or near ‘Ain el-Barideh, where the ruins of an ancient village have been traced and described by Porter, Tristram, and other explorers. This site is about a mile south of el-Mejdel. An incidental testimony in support of this identification is given by Rabbi Schwarz, who asserts that the cave of Teliman or Talmanutha was in the cliffs which overlooked the sea behind the site of el-Mejdel. In the same connexion he identifies Migdal (Mejdel) with Magdala (p. 189). To this may be added the testimony of the Rabbins, that Magdala was adjacent to the city of Tiberias (Otho, Lex Rabb. 353). In the travels of Willibald (a.d. 722), ‘Magdalum’ is located between Tiberias and Capernaum; and in the time of Quaresmius (17th cent.), Mejdel is mentioned as identical with the Magdala of Scripture (ii. 866).

The generally accepted view that the descriptive surname of Mary—‘Magdalene’—used several times in the NT, and by all the Evangelists, was derived from her home or birthplace, is confirmed by the testimony of Edersheim, who asserts that several Rabbis are spoken of in the Talmud as ‘Magdalene’ or residents of Magdala. From the same source he gathers the statements that Magdala, which was a Sabbath-day’s journey from Tiberias, was celebrated for its dye-works and its manufactories of fine woollen textures, of which eighty are mentioned. It was also noted for its wealth, its moral corruption, and for its traffic in turtle-doves and pigeons for purifications. The suggestion made by Lightfoot, that the name meant ‘curler of hair,’ is rejected by Edersheim, who regards it as founded upon a misapprehension (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. p. 571).

Magdala is favourably situated at the S.E. corner of the plain of Gennesaret. It is three miles north of Tiberias, and almost the same distance south of Khan Minyeh. Before it lies the northward expanse of the Plain and the Lake; behind it rises a dark background of beetling cliffs, broken in one section by the deeply-cleft gorge of the Wady Hamam (Valley of Doves). Its precipitous sides are honeycombed with caves, which for centuries have been the refuge of robbers and outlaws. Mt. Hattin, the traditional mountain of the Beatitudes, is a conspicuous landmark on the plateau at the upper end of the wady. Through this natural passage-way the caravan route from the Mediterranean coast follows the line of the old Roman road to Khan Minyeh, and thence northward over the hills of Naphtali. A perennial stream, which waters the southern portion of the Plain, finds its way to the Lake a short distance north of the outskirts of the town.

Mejdel, which has little in itself to commend or distinguish it, is the only place of permanent habitation in the once densely populated ‘land of Gennesaret.’ It consists of twenty or more low, flat-roofed, grass-covered hovels, built of a conglomeration of dried mud, shells, and pebbles. Its degenerate inhabitants are the only resident farmers of the Plain, and go out from the town to cultivate a few patches of cleared ground in favourable locations. Near the centre of the village a palm-tree rises conspicuously above the objects around it, and a few thickly set thorn-trees on the outskirts afford a grateful shade to the loungers of the place in the heat of the day. A watch-tower on the north border of the town is a present suggestion of the derivation of the name Mejdel or its Greek form Migdol. It is possible also that Migdal-el (Jos 19:38) stands for the same place. The tower gives evidence of a date of construction comparatively modern, but it is doubtless the successor of an older outlook or watch-tower, which commanded the gateway to the southern section of the Gennesaret plain. The remains of substructions of a substantial character, hidden beneath the earth and its dense covering of undergrowth, afford satisfactory evidence of the antiquity of the site.

Literature.—Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. pp. 571–572; Andrews, Life of our Lord, pp. 337–338; Tristram, Holy Land, p. 253; Thomson, Land and Book, ‘Central Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] ’ p. 394; Smith’s DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] vol. ii. p. 1734; Robinson, BRP [Note: RP Biblical Researches in Palestine.] ii. 397; Ewing, art. ‘Magadan,’ in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible ; also art. ‘Dalmanutha’; Baedeker, Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] and Syria, p. 255.

Robert L. Stewart.

By: Richard Gottheil, Samuel Krauss

Town in Palestine in the province of Galilee; probably the birthplace of Mary Magdalene. There is a Talmudic sentence which declares that Magdala was destroyed (by the Romans) on account of its immorality (Lam. R. ii. 2). Jesus once went to Magdala by ship on the Sea of Gennesaret (Matt. xv. 39; even if the reading Μαγαδάν [= Μαγλδάλ] be accepted in place of Μαγδαλά, it must be inferred that Magdala is meant). Because he made the journey by boat some have held that the town was on the eastern shore of the sea; such a conclusion is not necessary, however, and Magdala was more probably on the western shore, perhaps the present Al-majdal, a small village an hour and a quarter north of Tiberias.

Rabbinical accounts are clear only in indicating Magdala as situated near Tiberias. In Tosef., 'Er. vi. 13 (ed. Zuckermandel, p. 145; comp. Yer. 'Er. v. 22d, where the description is more detailed and accurate), it is true, Tiberias is placed near Gadara also, which latter place is known to have been situated east of the Jordan. But the proximity to Tiberias is noted also in Yer. Ma'as iii. 50c; andSimeon ben Laḳish, who had a quarrel with the patriarch, fled to Magdala from the neighboring Tiberias (Yer. Sanh. ii. 19d; Hor. iii. 47a). There were in Magdala a seminary or a synagogue, and a school for children (Eccl. R. x. 8). In several passages in the Talmud and Midrash "Magdala" occurs as a variant of "Migdal Ẓabba'aya" (tower of the dyers). Neubauer is consequently of the opinion that the latter as well as other names compounded with "Migdal" refers to a quarter in the town of Magdala; but this is not the case. Only so much is certain, that a few teachers of the Law were born in Magdala—e.g., R. Isaac (B. M. 25a) and Yudan (Yer. Ber. ix. 14a; Ta'an. i. 64b). In the Talmud besides the usual Aramaic name "Magdala" the Hebrew form "Migdol" occasionally occurs (e.g., Tosef. 'Er. vi. 13). This is without significance, however, as is shown by the fact that the Biblical "Migdol" is regularly rendered by the Septuagint as Μάγδωλος (e.g., in Num. xxxiii. 7).

Bibliography:

Winer, B. R.;

Neubauer, G. T. p. 217;

Lightfoot, Horoe Hebraicoe, p. 136.

(Hebrew: migdal, tower, fortress)

A town in Galilee, 2.5 miles north of Tiberias, birthplace or home of Mary Magdalen (Luke 8); probably the Magdalel of the tribe of Nephtali (Joshua 19). After the second multiplication of loaves Jesus went with His Apostles "into the coasts of Magedan" (Matthew 15), the name given to Magdala by some writers. A wealthy town, it was destroyed by the Romans on account of its immorality. It is the modern Mejdel.

(Hebr. Migdal = tower, fortress; Aramaic Magdala; Greek Magdala).It is perhaps the Migdal-El mentioned in the Old Testament (Joshua 19:38) belonging to the tribe of Nephtali. St. Jerome in his version of Eusebius’s "Chronicle" supposes the place to be in the neighbourhood of Dor (Tanturah) on the sea-coast; Kiepert, on the contrary, identifies it with ‘Athlit (Castellum Peregrinorum). The territory of Nephtali, however, never extended so far to the west. According to Matt., xv, 39, after the second multiplication of loaves, Jesus went with His Apostles into the country of Magedan, the name given in various forms (by many of the best authorities, Aleph, B, D, Old Lat., Old Syr., Vulg.). Very many earlier authorities, however, give Magdala instead of Magedan (15 Greek uncials, the Minusculi, 1 Old Lat., Armen., Boh., Æth., Syr., Hex.). The parallel passage in Mark., viii, 10, reads in most recensions Dalmanutha (only D, Syr. Sin. Old Lat. with one exception, Goth., and some Minusculi agree with the name in Matthew). A solution is rendered difficult by the fact that the situation is unknown, and the direction cannot be inferred from the Gospel. The most plausible suggestion is that of van Kasteren who thinks Dalmanutha is the modern El-Delhamiye, about four miles south of the southern end of the lake near the Jordan, north of the influx of the Yarmuk. He also thinks that Magedan is represented by Ma‘ad, still more to the south (the change of ghimel to ayin offers no difficulty). In sound the transition from Magdala to Magadan is not impossible in paleography; it is indeed easily intelligible.The existence of a Galilean Magdala, the birthplace or home of St. Mary Magdalen (i.e. of Magdala), is indicated by Luke, viii, 2; Mark, xvi, 9; Matt., xxvii, 56, 61; xxviii, 1, and in the parallel passages, John xx, 1, 18. The Talmud distinguishes between two Magdalas only. One was in the east, on the Yarmuk near Gadara (in the Middle Ages Jadar, now Mukes), thus acquiring the name of Magdala Gadar; as a much frequented watering place it was called Magdala Çeba ‘ayya (now El-Hammi, about two hours’ journey from the southern end of the lake to the east, near a railway station, Haifa-Dera‘a). According to various passages in the Talmud, there was another Magdala near Tiberias, at a distance from it of about three and three-quarters miles. Only one mile being given in the Palestinian Talmud, several different places have been identified with it; wrongly, however, for according to the parallel passages in the Babylonian Talmud and the context of the passage, the reading must be condemned as an error. This Magdala, perhaps to distinguish it from the place similarly named east of the Jordan, is called Magdala Nunayya, "Magdala of the Fishes", by which its situation near the lake and plentiful fisheries appear to be indicated. According to the Talmud, Magdala was a wealthy town, and was destroyed by the Romans because of the moral depravity of its inhabitants. Josephus gives an account (Bell. jud., III, x) of the taking of a town in Galilee, which was situated on the lake near Tiberias and which had received its Greek name, Taricheæ (the Hebrew name is not given), from its prosperous fisheries. Pliny places the town to the south of the lake, and it has been searched for there. But a due regard for the various references in Josephus, who was often in the town and was present at its capture, leaves no doubt that Taricheæ lay to the north of Tiberias and thirty stadia from it (about three and three-quarters miles). The identity of Taricheæ with Magdala Nunayya is thus as good as established.After the destruction of the Temple, Magdala Nunayya became the seat of one of the twenty-four priestly divisions, and several doctors of the law sprang from the town. Christian tradition sought there the home of Mary Magdalen. If we are to believe the Melchite patriarch, Euthychius of Alexandria, the brother of St Basil, Peter of Sebaste, knew of a church at Magdala in the second half of the fourth century, which was dedicated to the memory of Mary Magdalen. About the middle of the sixth century, the pilgrim Theodosius reckoned Magdala’s distance from Tiberias in the south and Heptapegon (now ‘Ain Tabgha) in the north at two miles. At all events the reckonings as to the relative distance between the two places is approximately right. At the end of the eighth century St. Willibald went as a pilgrim from Tiberias past Magdala to Capharnaum. In the tenth century the church and house of Mary Magdalen were shown. The Russian abbot Daniel (1106) and the Franciscan Quaresimus (1616) give the place the name of Magdalia. The small poverty-stricken village, El-Mejdel, has kept the name and situation to this day. It lies about midway between Tabaryya and ‘Ain Tabgha, at the south end of the little fruitful plain of Genesareth, and rests on the declivities of the mountain which projects over the lake. Towards the west the connection with the inner country of Galilee is effected through Wadi Hamam, past Qarn Hattin. In the caverns of Wadi Haman, about half an hour to the west of Magdala, the Galilean robber bands during the time of the first Herod used to find a safe refuge. Later the caves were occupied by hermits, until finally a stronghold was established there by the Arabs. Mejdel, with its few dirty huts and single palm tree, is all that is left of luxurious Magdala. No ruins of any importance have yet been uncovered.-----------------------------------     Besides kthe usual dictionaries of the Bible, consult OEHLER, Die Ortschaften u. Grenzen Galiläas nach Josephus in Zeitsch. d. deutschen Palästinavereins, XXVIII (1905), 11-20; KLEIN, Beitrage zur Geogr. u. Gesch. Galiläas (Leipzig, 1909), 76-84; VAN KASTEREN in Revue bibl., VI (1897), 93-9.A. MERK Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

mag´da-la. See MAGADAN.