BAR Exclusive! Major New Excavation Planned for Mary Magdalene’s Hometown

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A major new excavation is being planned for the hometown of one of the most significant figures in the life of Jesus. Often referred to simply as the Magdalene, Mary Magdalene came from Magdala, an important fishing community on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The site is situated 4 miles north of Tiberias and 7 miles south of Capernaum, where Jesus himself spent much time and in whose synagogue he preached (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:31). Today the site belongs to the Franciscan fathers and is not open to the public. It was partially excavated by Father […]

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Footnotes

In the Talmud (b. Pesahim 46a), the city is called Migdol-Nunya (“Tower of Fishes”; nunya is “fishes” in Aramaic).

See Hershel Shanks, “Is It or Isn’t It—A Synagogue,” BAR, November/December 2001.

Endnotes

See Virgilio C. Corbo, “Scavi Archaeologici a Magdala,” Liber Annus 24 (1974), p. 5; as well as Virgilio Corbo, “Città romana di Magdala: Rapporto preliminare dopo la quarta campagna di scavo, 1975”; and Stanislao Loffreda, “Alcune osservazione sulla ceramica di Magdala,” in Emmanuele Testa, ed., Studia Hierosolymitana in onore del P. Bellarmino Bagatti, vol. 1, Studi archeologici (Jerusalem: Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Collectio Maior, 1976).