From Zenit News Agency (03/08/06):

In Search of the Real Mary Magdalene

ROME, MARCH 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A group of women theologians and a woman journalist met to try to sketch a true portrait of a saint parodied in one of the best-selling novels of all time.

A round-table discussion “Mary Magdalene beyond ‘The Da Vinci Code’” took place last Friday as part of the cycle of talks of the Chair “Woman and Christianity” at the pontifical faculty Marianum, directed by the Servants of Mary.

This is a very brief article, but worth reading. In particular, I was impressed by one scholar’s alternate reading of Mary Magdalene’s epithet:

Rigato went on to speak of the Mary Magdalene that appears in the synoptic Gospels and in John’s Gospel, saying that in her judgment Mary was not from Magdala in the topographic sense because “Magdala is not a known geographic place.”

The theologian believes that this name was coined by Christ’s disciples after Pentecost, as it makes reference literally to “migdal,” which means tower, and to “gadal” — “to be large.” In other words, it was their wish to express that Magdalene is the one who has been magnified, Rigato said.

Finally! Academic support for the fact that Magdala wasn’t known in the first century. I’m not sure that I’m convinced by Rigato’s name hypothesis, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s better than most.

From Pesikta Rabbati: Discourses for Feasts, Fasts, and Special Sabbaths, trans. William G. Braude, Piska 17:6 (p. 372). New Haven and London, Yale University Press (1968).

And the Sabeans made a raid, and took [the oxen and the asses] away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword (Job 1:15). According to R. Abba bar Kahana, the oxen and the asses taken away by the Sabeans from the village of Karnaim, [the home of Job], were led through the district of Abela in its entirety, and when they got to Magdala of the Dyers they died there.

I have two more Magdala references to investigate, in Ruth Rabbah and Exodus Rabbah. Supposedly, these sources discuss Magdala as the place of death for Job’s daughters. The passage above, composed in the 6th or 7th century according to Braude, was supposed to be about Job’s daughters as well, but it looks to be more about Job’s livestock. Maybe I’m misremembering the original citation.

Jim West kindly responded to my post about Magdala yesterday, and the points he brought up were very good. I’d like to discuss the Magdala question again in more detail while keeping his comments in mind. (This is a subject I’m likely to come back to frequently.)

In Greek, Mary Magdalene’s epithet is η μαγδαληνη, “the magdalene.” The Hebrew root of the word is “migdol,” which means tower, fortress, or stronghold. Traditionally, the epithet has been thought to mean “woman from Magdala,” however, there have been many people who believe it could mean something other than Mary’s place of origin. This isn’t a new thing; St. Jerome even suggested that Mary was called Magdalene because of her stature and faith, that she was like a tower. In fact, there are some pretty early texts that show some confusion about the name “magdalene” pretty early on; the Talmud offers a sort of garbled rendering of the name in a passage often assumed to refer to Jesus’ mother (see below), and Cyril’s Dormition of Mary suggests that the Virgin was from “Magdalia,” a district of Jerusalem (not a Galilean town) and was thus named “Magdalene!”

The situation gets even stickier when you consider that the actual location of a first century town called Magdala isn’t well documented. Here is what I know (or what I think I know…you never know, you know?):

• There are no references to a town called Magdala in the Gospels themselves, unless we assume that the epithet “magdalene” really does mean “woman from Magdala.” This is the Occam’s Razor approach; it is the absolute simplest and most logical explanation.
• The earliest reference to Magdala, itself, as a town, is in the writings of Eusebius in the early third century.
• Pilgrims didn’t commonly visit Magdala, or at least they didn’t write about it, until the sixth century when Theodosius mentions visiting there. (Interestingly, Theosodius mentions visiting the home of “our Lady Mary” in Magdala.)
• The Talmud mentions two Magdalas, and their locations conflict between the Babylonian and Palestinian versions. It has been supposed by many that Magdala Nunayya, which is given at a distance of about three and three-quarters miles from Tiberias in the Babylonian Talmud and one mile from Tiberias in the Palestinian Talmud, is the same town as the one called Taricheae by Josephus and Pliny. The Catholic Encyclopedia (which is very dated, I admit) suggests that the distance in the Palestinian Talmud is incorrect, not the Babylonian. I think this has always been a “best guess” kind of scenario, and maybe there is more recent scholarship on the subject that I haven’t stumbled across yet.
• I’ve never been to the modern location of Magdala, but I’ve read in travel guides, etc. that it is located “almost four miles north of Tiberias.” This would jibe with the location of Taricheae given by Josephus, who pegged it at “thirty stadia” from Tiberias.

Recently I suggested on the Magdalene.org email list that there are records of places called Migdol dating back thousands of years, in the Hebrew scriptures and in Egyptian records (the El-Amarna Letters). They aren’t anywhere near Galilee, and I wouldn’t suggest that they are the Magdala in question. But I think it does show that it wouldn’t be terribly unusual at any given point in history for a town to exist somewhere in the region with the name of Migdol/Magdala. After all, any town with a tower could legitimately call itself “migdal [fill in the blank],” for “tower of [unique characteristic of town here].”

I’m not at all opposed to the notion that “magdalene” is indicative of Mary’s place of origin, I am just interested in what evidence there is for such a place in the first century by that name.

Also commenting on yesterday’s post, Akelda asked:

Speaking of Magdala, can you shed any illumination upon the assertion that “Magdala” in the Torah means “curling hair” and is therefore a euphemism for adultress? I’ve only ever seen the “curling hair” references in articles that defend the theory of MM as a prostitute (such as the pre-1969 version of the Catholic Encylopedia, plus other sites that seem to reference that article indirectly.)

Good question, let’s get back to this, which I mentioned above briefly. In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 67a and Chagigah 4b of the Babylonian Talmud, I believe), a woman assumed to be Jesus’ mother is called “megadela neshaya,” which has been translated as “curler of women’s hair,” “women’s hairdresser,” etc. In Chapter 27, “Exercitations upon the Gospel of St. Matthew “, from A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, by John Lightfoot (1602-1675), it says:

Whence she was called Magdalene, doth not so plainly appear; whether from Magdala, a town on the lake of Gennesaret, or from the word which signifies a plaiting or curling of the hair, a thing usual with harlots.

Lightfoot goes on to comment on the Talmud reference in question, and as far as I can tell, he is the origin of the belief that hairdressing was a harlot’s occupation. I don’t know of any evidence to support Lightfoot’s assertion though, and it’s not something that is taken for granted by reputable scholars.

Margaret Starbird has frequently pointed out, and rightfully so I believe, that there is no evidence of a first century town in Palestine called Magdala. The town called Magdala today is the town that was named as Magdala in the early 3rd century by Eusebius in his Onamasticon, presumably during the time when Constantine’s mother, Helena, was traispsing around the Holy Land “discovering” relics and locations mentioned in the Gospels.

There are a couple of first century references to the town that is now called Magdala, but under the Greek name, Tarichaea. (Josephus and Pliny.)

There are references in the Talmud (both Palestinian and Babylonian) to more than one Magdala, but it is generally agreed that Magdala Nunayya (“tower of the fish”) is the town that was also called Tarichaea. I’m not aware of the dating of the Talmudic references to this town, but since the writing of the Talmud doesn’t predate the early third century by much (if at all), then it’s a later occurance.

Today, we believe that Magdala Nunayya was Tarichaea and that it was Mary Magdalene’s hometown. Without getting into all of the questions surrounding the epithet “magdalene,” I’m very curious about the place called Magdala.

Are there any first century witnesses whatsoever to a Galilean town called Magdala?

I don’t expect any comments since I’ve just started this blog and not many folks are reading, but this is a question for which I would sincerely like an answer. I’ll post more about it as time permits.