Magdala synagogue

In 2009, a 1st-century synagogue was discovered in Tarichaea (also called both Magdala and Migdal). Before 70 CE, this town was substantial and prosperous, with a flourishing trade in the catching, drying and salting of fish, the staple protein of ordinary folk. It had an artificial harbour for more than 200 boats of a particular style known to us from an ancient mosaic depiction found at Magdala and from the salvaged and preserved example on display in Kibbutz Nof Ginnosar. The town of Magdala is currently being excavated and closely examined for clues about the history of life in Galilee in the pre-destruction period.

Magdala was built with two main streets in the Roman manner. It had a residential area where the floors were earthen, a wealthier area with some mosaic floors and some two-storey houses and also a ‘religious quarter’ with four mikvah’ot and other indications of Jewish praxis, e.g. a shovel for ash and stone vessels. There were grain-storage buildings with paved stone floors. Bread ovens and flour mills were also found. A large basalt bowl was set up at the entrance to the synagogue: probably a water-bowl for the washing of hands, as is shown in our YouTube presentation on the Magdala Synagogue.

About 2,400 coins have been found in Magdala. One vital example found in the central floor area of the synagogue was minted in nearby Tiberius in the time of Herod the Tetrarch, in 29 CE: within the ‘Jesus period’. The building was commenced between 5 and 10 CE but expanded in c.40 CE to seat more people. It was abandoned as the Roman army approached in c.67 CE and some of its stones and columns were reused to build defensive barricades across the streets so its pre-destruction date is hardly ever contested.
Josephus had recorded the last hours of the town after a fierce naval battle on the lake fought by fishing boats (War III.10. 1-5) against Roman rafts. The battle for Magdala left 6,500 dead (Wars II.10.9-10). Vespasian then killed the old people, took 30,400 slaves and sent 6,000 young men to the Emperor Nero and some to King Agrippa to be sold as slaves.

The synagogue in may have been the home-synagogue of Mary Magdalene, who was so close to Jesus that some have theorised that they were married and he did entrust her with the task of telling the disciples of his resurrection.

It is reasonable to suppose that, when Jesus lived at Capernaum on the North side of the lake, he would have passed through Magdala as it was on the Via Maris, the main route from Nazareth to Capernaum. This very synagogue may even have been briefly attended by Jesus and some of his disciples. Because it was close to the Sea of Galilee, those disciples who were fishermen would certainly have seen and heard it being constructed when they were out fishing on the lake.

Off the entrance hall was a room with a low bench along the walls that may have served as a space for education (a Beit Midrash). It contained a rectangular chalk stone that may have served as a table for scrolls. Nearby a small room with a mosaic floor was probably used for scroll-storage (the Aron HaKadosh). There are numerous other small rooms (perhaps for meals, hospitality or for storing the Temple taxes).

The study-room leads into the main hall, which is almost square with one doorway and an ambulatory all around (behind the columns). This architecture facilitated the accessing of seats without crossing the central space, which may have been carpeted. The ambulatory was paved with incomplete black and white mosaics in a meander pattern. Its complete section features a rosette, which was a premier ‘religious’ symbol in the 1st century, although its exact meaning is obscure. The symbol was often used on Jewish ossuaries of the 1st century and in synagogues, for example on a lintel at Gamla and above the entrance at Kiryat Sefer. One also decorates the mosaic floor of a nearby house, which also has two rows of stone benches, as if meetings were held there. A rosette was also found in Jerusalem, in the debris, in the same cistern as the Theodotus inscription. The first-century Theodotus inscription (illustrated in Vol. 1 in Plate 12.1) states that Theodotus was the third generation of hereditary leaders of this synagogue, which means that the first building was as early as the 1st-century BCE, or even earlier. This complex had been extensive, with upper and lower rooms and pools for ritual immersion.

Internally, in the second phase at least, the walls at Magdala were plastered and painted in five colours, mainly red, so the interior would have been very colourful (see Plate 2). All congregants faced inwards but some, perhaps, sat in the central floor area.

The building did not face the lake, nor Jerusalem, but the street. Typically, the most convenient orientation for each building was characteristic of the early ‘Galilee style’. Internally Magdala has the usual banks of seats around all four sides. With six stone columns to support the roof a second storey is unlikely but the central section may have been raised to allow for clerestory windows to provide light into the interior.
This Magdala synagogue is unique for the period because, on the main floor, a carved limestone block was found, which may have been the base of a lecturn. Its carved images include an unmistakable Jewish symbol, a menorah. Five faces of the stone are carved but the meanings of the symbols is a challenge after 2,000 years. The excavators, and Richard Bauckham and others have formed interpretations but even the identity of each item is subject to conjecture, for example on its top two matching items have been viewed as both date-palm trees and rakes used to scrape ash and burnt bones from the Altar of Sacrifice in the Temple. Similarly, the hanging circular objects on both of the long sides (visible in Plate 4a) have been interpreted variously as incense shovels, censers and oil lamps.
As the Table of Shewbread with its twelve loaves was often regarded as the most imporant of the three items of furniture in the Holy Place and because the main feature of the top suface is a rosette-with-twelve-petals, the stone is easily associated the Table of Shewbread. Initially it was thought to represent the twelve loaves of shewbread offered weekly in the Temple, or the twelve months of the celestial year. We suggest an eschatological meaning: that the petals represent the whole house of Israel: all twelve tribes, in the midst of the Temple. Interestingly, Richard Bauckham offers a similar solution by interpreting the rear symbols (those in Plate 4b) with Ez.24:1-9 in mind. This combination results in an important and personal meaning for the congregation assembled together: that the Divine presence is with them as they meet; just as if they were in the Temple. The iconography of the rosette on the top, with its twelve petals (or rosette-within-a-circle) motif is connected to the 1st century Temple as a mosaic example has been found in the burnt house of a priest in the Upper City of Jerusalem.

The iconography found within the Magdala synagogue is complex but it includes three important Jewish symbols found elsewhere: the simple rosette, the Menorah, and the circle-composed-of-twelve-petals. The Magdala synagogue challenges much 20th century scholarship because of its demonstrable relationship to the Jewish cult and Temple and the early use of Jewish iconography: the Menorah, the rosette and the twelve-petal flower. The façade of the stone shown in Plate 4c features two columns, two amphorae and a Menorah on what may be a pedestal or the entrance to the Temple, with its characteristic curtains parted.

In the street, at the entrance to the synagogue, there is a basalt basin in situ, probably for the washing of hands. It can be seen in our YouTube posting: ‘The Synagogue at Magdala’. It is further evidence for the growing custom of hand-washing before reading the Scriptures, praying or eating, as noted in Mark 7:5 and in the above discussion of the Gamla synagogue.