Magdala

Afar I stood and watched him as he spake, although he saw me not.

And last, one night his mother, coming through Jerusalem with friends and neighbours from far Galilee, saw me, and pausing said all wonderingly, Oh, fair are all the maids of Netheroth, but whence came you with such a loveliness, as never yet by well or village way was seen in Israel since Bethlehem, smiled through its barley sheaves on happy Ruth? My father was of Magdala, I said, but I am she whom every matron shuns, for I have sold my body beauty at a price, with traffic of long shame, a woman peace.

The beauty and the goddess of my God breathed through my face and form, because your son spurned not the worship of the meanest soul, which, born from his, has given me true life, beauty of earth and sky and sea once more, and all sweet things I knew in childhood days.

She put her arm about me, and we went, back through the soft light of the quiet streets, and thus I dwelt with her until the end.

Here is what Luke tells us.

Her name is Mary, and Magdalene points to where she was from, Magdala, a town on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus had cast seven demons out of her.

After he set her free, she followed him, traveled with him in the Twelve, and was one of the women who supported his ministry out of her own means.

In Luke chapter 8, we are told that Mary had many demons.

Mary's surname was Magdalene, which means that she was probably from the fishing village of Magdala.

Certain scholars believe she was a wealthy woman, although most likely an outcast because she was plagued with seven demons.

You can imagine her fear at this moment when she's sitting before the grave of Jesus.

But at the same time, it would have inundated every known first century settlement around the lake.

Capernaum, Magdala, Tiberias would have all been underwater.

So you solve one problem and you create 10 more.

The second problem with the site identification is that after 20, 25 years of excavation, he didn't find materially the things that we would have expected in Bethsaida Julius.

I went for the first time in 2022, but I've been four times since already.

and there are these places that people go.

They go to the Sea of Galilee, they go to see the ancient fishing boat, they go to Capernaum, they go to Magdala, then they go to Caesarea by the sea.

Are you hopeful that Bethsaida will, over time, be developed in such a way that it will be a place to which Christians can come a little more accessible, perhaps, and see the site and kind of, you know, walk in the footsteps of not only the apostles, but Jesus himself.

It was possibly some sort of podium or table, and it has one of the earliest known depictions of the menorah from the Jerusalem Temple.

Now, as you can probably tell from the city's name, Magdala, the site is closely linked with one of the most famous followers of Jesus, Mary Magdalene.

For a long time, Christians and a lot of scholars have understood Mary Magdalene to mean Mary from Magdala.

And if that's correct, then this should be her hometown, which the tourism industry and the site's gift shop are more than happy to lean into.

Maybe Jesus and Mary met in this very synagogue, so says the tour guide.

I mean, obviously.

You're looking at footage of it right now.

But none of our surviving first century sources clearly calls this settlement Magdala.

and Matthew and James and John came from, which was, you know, to take that in and soak that in was really incredible.

To be in Magdala, to see the church in Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation were, you know, just amazing opportunities.

I really think, Michael Patrick, that this is one of the most consequential trips I've ever taken in my life, and and possibly may ever take in my life.

But, you know, the opportunities while we were in Jerusalem to tour the ancient city of David, to meet with Cardinal Pizzabala, to meet with Ambassador Huckabee, and to meet with the relatively new Israeli envoy to the Christian world, Ambassador George Deke, who is a Greek Orthodox Christian whose family has been in Israel for centuries.

points each day almost that brought me to tears of where we were at and what I was taking in, and certainly the opportunity to go to those spots, to touch the stone on which the cross was placed, to touch the slab in which his body was cared for, to touch the place where he was laid to rest, and to be in those spots and to attend Mass in those spots was really overwhelming.

Likewise, you know, our time in Galilee with seeing the Mount of Beatitudes where he gave... you know, the Beatitudes out to the people who were listening, to touch the Sea of Galilee when we were at the spot that's known as the Primacy of Peter, where Peter, after the Resurrection, was told, feed my sheep.

And, you know, to see Magdala, to see Nazareth, to be at the Church of the Annunciation, where Mary was told that she would be bearing Jesus alive.

for nine months.