MAGDALA. - A locality, the location of which is disputed, in the vicinity of the Lake of Genesareth. In the critical text of the Gospels the name M. does not occur, but it is presumed in that of Maria Magdalena, that is, “of M.”
In Mt. 15, 39 it is read that Jesus, after the second multiplication of the loaves, “having dismissed the crowds, embarked and came into the region of Magadan.” This name (Μαγάδων), attested by codices B S D and by the Vulgate, is replaced by Magdala (Μαγάδαλ) in the codices of family K (textus receptus). In the parallel passage of Mc. 8, 19 the best codices read Dalmanoutha; some secondary ones read 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 Arab village of el-Meğdel, about 4 Tiberiade (v.). The Talmudists know in this area a city which they call Mighdal-Nünäjä (“Tower of the Fish”). The Hellenists appear to have translated it as Tarichea (“Salted Fish”). At the time of the Jewish war, according to Fl. Giuseppe (Bell. Iud., 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 Erode Antipa established his residence at Tiberiade (A.D. 26), Tarichea declined in importance.
Others, with Eusebius and s. Girolamo (Onomasticon), seek M. Gerasa (v.), or, with van Kasteren (Dalmanoutha, in DB, II, cols. 1209-1211), southeast of the lake. An ingenious conjecture by J. Sickenberger derives the strange name Dalmanoutha from Magadan, by way of a marginal gloss (in Zeitsch. d. deutschen Palästina Vereins, 57 [1934], pp. 281-84).
The context of Mc. 8, 10-13 seems to favour Galilee: indeed, the Pharisees were present in that locality, in order to escape whom Jesus “departed to the other side” of the lake (εἰς τὸ πέραν, into Perea?).