Magdala

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For Magdala, the former capital of Ethiopia, see Amba Mariam.

Magdala ("tower") was, according to the Bible, a small village in Galilee, which may have been the birthplace or the primary residence of Mary Magdalene, in the Christian New Testament. Magdala is its Aramaic designation; in Hebrew it was known as Migdal.

The name given for Magdala in the Revised Version of Matthew 15:39 is Magadan. This is probably another name for the same place, or for a village so near it that the shore where Jesus landed may have belonged to either village.

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Other Places named Magdala

The Jewish Talmud mentions two places named Magdala.

Magdala Gadar - One Magdala was in the east, on the Yarmuk near Gadara (in the Middle Ages "Jadar", now Mukes), thus acquiring the name Magdala Gadar.
Magadala Nunayya - There was another, better-known Magdala near Tiberias, Magdala Nunayya, ("Magdala of the fishes"), which would locate it on the shore of the lake. Josephus mentions a wealthy Galilean town destroyed by the Romans in the Jewish War (III, x) with the Greek name Taricheæ (Josephus does not give its Hebrew name), from its prosperous fisheries.

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