In the light of all the information attainable at the pre.sent time, the probabilities strongly favour the view, which has long been held by eminent writers and e.xplorers, that the district in which these places were located was on the western shore of the Lake of Galilee, and that Magadan represents the village now known as cl-Mcjdel, the traditional site of the town of Mary Magdalene. While the words in their present form are not identical, they may be regarded as variations of the same name. Stanley's suggestion is worthy of note in this connexion : ' It may be observed that, as Herodotus (ii. 159) turns Megiddo into Mag- dalum, so some MSS in ^It 15^^ turn Magdala into Magadan' {SP 451, note 1). It has been sug- gested also by .another writer, as a possible ex- planation of the substitution of one name for the other, ' that owing to the familiar recurrence of the word Magdalene, the less known name was absorbed in the better, and Magdala usurped the name and possiblj' also the position of Magadan " (art. 'Magdala" in Smiths DB ii. p. 17.34). On the supposition that Magadan was on or adjacent to the site of el-Mcjdel, the probable location of Dalmanutha is at or near 'Ain el-Barideh, where the ruins of an ancient village have been traced and described by Porter, Tristram, and other explorers. This site is about a mile south of cI-Mcjdel. An incidental testimony in support of this identification is given by Rabbi Sclnvarz, who asserts tliat the cave of Teliman or Talmanutha was in tlie cliH's which overlooked the sea behind the site of el-Mcjdcl. In the same connexion he identifies Migdal (Mcjdcl) with Magdala (p. 189). To this may be added the testimony of the Rabbins, that Magdala was adjacent to the city of Tiberias (Otho, Lex Enbh. 353). In the travels' of Willibald (.\.D. 722), ' Magdjilum' is located between Tiberias and Capernauui ; and in the time of Quaresmius (17th cent.), Mejdel is mentioned as identical with the Magdala of Scripture (ii. 866).
The generally accepted view that the descriptive surname of ^Iary — 'Magdalene' — used several times in the XT, and by all the Evangelists, was
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derived from her home or birthjdace, is confirmed bj" the testimony of Edersiieim, who asserts that several Rabbis are spoken of in the Talmud as ' Magdalene " or residents of Magdala. From the same source he gathers the statements that ^lag- dala, which was <a Sabbath-day's journey from Til)erias, was celebrated for its dje-works and its manufactories of fine woollen textures, of which eighty are mentioned. It was also noted for its wealth, its moral corruption, and for its traffic in turtle-doves and pigeons for purifications. The suggestion made by Lightfoot, that the name meant 'curler of hair,' is rejected by Etlersheim, who regards it as founded u^k)!! a misapprehension (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. p. 571).
Magdala is favourably situated at the S. E corner of the plain of Gennesaret. It is three miles north of Tiberias, and almost the same distance south of Khan Minyeh. Before it lies the north- ward expanse of the Plain and the Lake ; beliind it rises a ilark background of beetling clitt's, broken in one section by the deeply-cleft gorge of the Wady Hamam (Valley of Doves). Its precipitous sides are honeycoinl)ed with caves, which for centuries have been the refuge of robbers and outlaws. Mt. ^Jattin, the traditional mountain of tlie Beati- tudes, is a conspicuous landmark on the plateau at the upper end of the wady. Through this natural passage-way the car.avan route from the Mediter- ranean coast follows the line of the old Roman road to Khan Minyeh, and thence northward over the hills of Xaphtali. A perennial stream, which waters the southern portion of the Plain, finds its way to the Lake a sliort distance north of the out- skirts of the town.
Mejdel, which has little in itself to commend or distinguish it, is the only place of permanent habitation in the once densely populated ' land of Gennesaret.' It consists of twenty or more low, fiat-roofed, grass-covered hovels, built of a con- glomeration of dried mud, shells, and pebbles. Its degenerate inhabitants are the only resident farmers of the Plain, and go oiit from the town to cultivate a few patches of cleared ground in favour- able locations. Near the centre of the village a palm-tree rises conspicuously above the objects around it, and a few thicklj- set thorn-trees on the outskirts afibrd a grateful shade to the loungers of the place in the heat of the day. A watch- tower on the north border of the town is a present suggestion of tlie derivation of the name Mejdel or its Greek form Migdol. It is possible also that Migdal-el (Jos 19^) stands for the same place. Tlie tower gives evidence of a date of construction com- paratively modern, but it is doubtless the successor of an older outlook or watch-tower, which com- manded the gateway to the southern section of the Gennesaret plain. The remains of substruc- tions of a substantial character, hidden beneath the earth and its dense covering of undergrowth, afibrd satisfactoiy evidence of the antiquitj- of the site.
LiTERATrRE. — Edersheiui, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i. pp. 571-572 ; Andrews, Life of our Lord, pp. 337-338; Tristram, Holy Land, p. 253; Thomson, Land and Book, 'Central Pal. 'p. 394; Smith's DiJ vol. ii. p. 1734 ; Robinson, BBP ii. 397 ; Ewing:, art. ' Magadan,' in Hasting:s' DB ; also art. 'Dalmanutha' ; Baedeker, Pal. and Si/ria, p. 255.