Magdala’s Mistaken Identity

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The site of Magdala on the shores of the Sea of Galilee is associated by many with Jesus’s famous disciple, Mary Magdalene. Ancient sources, however, indicate that the site’s first-century remains are likely those of the Galilean harbor city of Taricheae. Explore what we know of this ancient Jewish town and how it came to be mistakenly identified with Magdala.

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Footnotes

1. See Marcela Zapata-Meza and Rosaura Sanz-Rincón, “Excavating Mary Magdalene’s Hometown,” BAR, May/June 2017.

2. See, e.g., Benyamin Storchan, “A Glorious Church for a Mysterious Martyr,” BAR, Fall 2021.

Endnotes

1. Some scholars think Taricheae was also known as Magdala already in Roman times, but there is no evidence for this. The identification relies on conflating different rabbinic “Magdalas” and suggesting Taricheae had an unattested different name. See, e.g., Richard Bauckham, ed., Magdala of Galilee: A Jewish City in the Hellenistic and Roman Period (Waco, TX: Baylor Univ. Press, 2018), pp. 345–361; Uzi Leibner, Settlements and History in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Galilee, Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 127 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), pp. 214–237.

2. See, e.g., Strabo, Geography 16.2.45; Cicero, Letters 12.11; Pliny, Natural History 5.71; Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Titus 4:3; Josephus, Antiquities 14.20; 20.159; War 1.180; 2.252; Life 32.

3.
Although most scholars argue for Taricheae’s location north of Tiberias, others place it south of Tiberias. See, e.g., Nikos Kokkinos, “The Location of Tarichaea: North or South of Tiberias?” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 142 (2010), pp. 7–23.

4. See Marcela Zapata-Meza et al., “The Magdala Archaeological Project (2010–2012): A Preliminary Report of the Excavations at Migdal,” ’Atiqot 90 (2018), pp. 83–125; Richard Bauckham and Stefano De Luca, “Magdala As We Now Know It,” Early Christianity 6 (2015), pp. 91–118.