MAGDALA. - A locality whose location is disputed, in the vicinity of the Sea of Galilee. In the critical text of the Gospels, the name M. does not appear, but it is inferred from that of Mary Magdalene, i.e., of M. M.
In Mt 15:39 it is read that Jesus, after the second multiplication of the loaves, “dismissed the crowds, and got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan.” This name (Μαγδαδή), attested by the codices B S D and the Vulgate, is replaced by Magdala (Μαγδαλᾶ) in the codices of the K family (textus receptus). In the parallel passage of Mk 8:10, the best manuscripts read Dalmanoutha, while some secondary ones read Magdala (Θ 209) or other variants: Magda (Tatian, 55), Melegada (D*), Dalmounai (W).
The most common opinion (Dalman, Heidet, Abel, Mader, Ricciotti) identifies M. with the present-day Arab village of el-Megdel, about 4 km northwest of Tiberias (v.). The Talmudists know of a city in this area which they call Mighdal-Nīnajā (“Tower of the Fish”). The Hellenists seem to have translated it as Tarichea (“Salted Fish”). At the time of the Jewish War, according to Flavius Josephus (Bell. Jud., II, 23, 3–8; III, 10, 1–10), Tarichea had 40,000 inhabitants, 230 (or 330) fishing boats, and a hippodrome. It was conquered by Vespasian. After Herod Antipas established his residence in Tiberias (AD 26), Tarichea declined in importance.
Others, following Eusebius and St. Jerome (Onomasticon), seek M. GENESI (v.), or, with van Kasteren (Dalmanoutha, in DB, II, cols. 1209–1211), to the southeast of the lake. An ingenious conjecture by J. Sickenberger derives the strange name Dalmanoutha from Magadan through a marginal gloss (in Zeitsch. d. deutschen Palästina Vereins, 57 [1934], pp. 281–84).
The context of Mk 8:10–13 seems to favor Galilee: indeed, in that locality the Pharisees were present, from whom Jesus “withdrew to the other side” of the lake (εἰς τὸ πέραν, in Perea?).
Pietro De Ambroggi