MAGDALA. - A locality whose location is disputed, in the surroundings of the lake of Gennesaret. In the critical text of the Gospels the name M. does not occur, but it is supposed in that of Mary Magdalene, that is, "of M."

In Mt. 15:39 we read that Jesus, after the second multiplication of the loaves, "dismissed the crowds, got into the boat and came to the borders of Magadan." This name (Μαγάδων), attested by codices B S D and by the Vulgate, is replaced by Magdala (Μαγάδαλ) in the codices of the K family (textus receptus). In the parallel passage of Mk. 8:19 the best codices read Dalmanoutha, some secondary ones Magdala (Θ 209) or other variants: Mageda (Tatian, 565), Melegada (D*), Dalmounai (W).

The most common opinion (Dalman, Heidet, Abel, Mader, Ricciotti) identifies M. with the present-day Arab village of el-Meğdel, about 4 km. northwest of Tiberias (v.). The Talmudists know in this area a city which they call Mighdal-Nünäjä ("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. Iud., II, 23, 3-8; III, 10, 1-10), Tarichea counted 40,000 inhabitants, 230 (or 330) fishing boats, a hippodrome. It was conquered by Vespasian. After Herod Antipas fixed his residence at Tiberias (26 A.D.), Tarichea declined in importance.

Others, with Eusebius and St. Jerome (Onomasticon), look for M. on the eastern shore near Gerasa (v.), or, with van Kasteren (Dalmanoutha, in DB, II, coll. 1209-1211), to the southeast of the lake. An ingenious conjecture of J. Sickenberger derives the strange name of 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 argue in favor of Galilee: in fact the Pharisees were present in that locality, to escape from whom Jesus "withdrew to the other side" of the lake (εἰς τὸ πέραν, into Perea?).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: L. Szczepański, Geographia Palaestinae antiquae, Rome 1928, p. 206 ff.; L. Heidet, s. v. in DB, IV, coll. 539-42; A. E. Mader, s. v. in LThK, VI, col. 773; G. Ricciotti, Gius. Flavio tradotto e commentato. La guerra giud., II, Turin 1937, p. 363; F.-M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine, II, Paris 1938, pp. 375 and 476.

Pietro De Ambroggi

@incollection{ec7_magdala, author = {De, Ambroggi Pietro}, title = {Magdala}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1815--1816}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/magdala} }

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