Magdala

“ Eighteen are at present prisoners in our camp, some of whom were concerned in the murder of one of the Abyssinians. The night before last they made an attack upon some of the mules with the baggage of the 33d, near Magdala, but were beaten off with the loss of several men. Now that we have got Magdala, our difficulty is to dispose of it, and it is this only which is keeping us waiting here. Magdala is, as I have already said, an almost impregnable place, even in the hands of these savages. North and west of them the people are Christians. ”

“ A woman mentioned in the Gospels as a follower of Jesus and, with others, a contributor to His support (Luke viii. 2-3) . Her home was doubtless at Magdala (q.v.) . She had been cured of demoniacal possession by Jesus and was among His most devoted friends. With the like-minded women she was a witness of the crucifixion (Matt. xxvii. 55, 56; Mark xv. 40-41; Luke xxiii. 48-49) and of the entombment of Jesus (Matt. xxvii. 61 and parallels) . ”

“ It is about three-quarters of a mile in length by less than half a mile in breadth, and lies more than a thousand feet higher than the neighbouring plain of Arogié. Chosen about 1860 by the emperor Theodore of Abyssinia as his principal stronghold in the south, Magdala owes its celebrity to the fact that, as the place of imprisonment of the English captives, it became the goal of the great English Expedition of 1868. At the time of its capture it contained huts for a population of about three thousand. ”

“ Pulling to the shore, we inquired the name of the place, of a fellah who was watering his donkey. His reply was, “Mejdel.” This is the ancient Magdala, the birth-place of Mary Magdalen, and was once visited by our Saviour. We were coming in closer, and yet closer, contiguity to sacred scenes. On our way from Beïrût to Haifa, we had passed the ruins of Tyre, where the Saviour yielded to the importunities of the Canaanitish woman, and healed her.
Passing between Nazareth and Cana, and approaching this lake, we looked at them from a distance, but here we were upon their threshold. ”

“ Mary, called Magdalene (from Magdala, the place of her residence) , and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, are specially mentioned. It was truly a missionary tour, as Jesus “went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” It must have occupied several months; and yet we have scarcely the slightest record of its events.
Upon reaching Capernaum, the throng was so great, that Jesus had no time even to partake of food. A man, both blind and dumb, and possessed with a devil, was brought to him; and he healed him. ”

“ It was reported at Magdala that Menilek, the King of Shoa, had again set out for Magdala, better prepared to act against Theodorus than on his former visit. A detailed communication from one of the captives, sent to his friends in England, and there published, has by some means reached the King’s camp, and is in the hands of M. Bardel. Apprehensions are entertained that it may do injury there. ”

“ Jesus went into the country, and proceeded till he came to the chief town or village in that district. Whitby says, "Magdala was a city and territory beyond Jordan, on the banks of Gadara. It readied to the bridge above Jordan, which joined it to the other side of Galilee, and contained within its precincts Dalmanutha." The MSS. and VV. read the name variously - Magada, Madega, Magdala; and the Syriac has Magdu. In Mark, Dalmanutha is read by many MSS. Melagada, Madegada, Magada, Magidan, and Magedam. Magdala, variously pronounced, seems to have been the place or country ”

“ The bounty and power of God is limitless for each human soul. Consider what was the quickening power of the Christ when He was on earth. Look at His disciples! They were poor and uncultured men. Out of the rough fisherman He made the great Peter, and out of the poor village girl of Magdala He made one who is a power in all the world today. Many queens have reigned who are remembered by their dates in history, and nothing more is known of them. But Mary the Magdalene is greater than them all. It was she whose love strengthened the disciples when their faith was failing. ”

“ Looking about in the town we notice some traces of its former grandeur; here a magnificent block of polished granite from Upper Egypt, there a hunting scene carved on the surface of a hard black lintel of basalt, besides old buildings, and broken shafts and columns half buried in rubbish.
From Tiberias we go north, and after a ride of 3 miles reach Medjel, which represents the Magdala of Christ’s time, and is known wherever the New Testament is read as the home of Mary Magdalene. The village is insignificant, being only a collection of huts and hovels ”

“ In this instance also, as in those of the centurion, (Matth. viii. 5-13,) and of the Samaritan leper, (Luke xvii. 16-18,) he indicated that the gospel would be more readily received by the Gentiles than by the Jews. See A. Clarke, in loc. Newcome, Obs. on our Lord. p. 165. Bp. Horsley's Sermons on this subject, Serm. xxxvii. and xxxviii. p. 444-464.188.Cellarius and Lightfoot think that Dalmanutha and Magdala were neighbouring towns. See Calmet, voc. Dalmanutha. It is probable that Dalmanutha and Magdala were in Gaulanitis, towards the south-east part of the lake. See Matth. xv. 21; Mark vii. ”

“ If force had failed, perhaps negotiations might succeed. It was known that the two fugitives were still living in some of the villages belonging to the relations of Mahomed, awaiting the return of a messenger they had sent to the Galla Queen Mastiate, whose camp was a few days distant. The Magdala chiefs, therefore, proposed to the Gallas in their power that if they could induce their relations to give up the two fugitives, with the things they had taken away with them, they would set them all—men, women, and children—free, and restore the cattle that had been plundered. ”

“ The woman who, under the name of Mary Magdalene,—whether that name be rightfully or wrongfully bestowed,—stands before us, sanctified in the imagination and in the faith of the people in her combined character of Sinner and of Saint, as the first-fruits of Christian penitence,—is a reality, and not a fiction. Even if we would, we cannot do away with the associations inseparably connected with her name and her image. ”

“ VERUS: (Clasping her more closely.) To be one alone, Magdalene, in a happier land, where everything encourages happiness, smiles upon lovers and blesses beauty. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: (Bursting into silent, convulsive sobs on Verus' breasts.) I love you. ... I know it. . . .
VERUS: Come, I know these tears that well at the same moment from our two hearts in our one joy. . . . But here, between the columns of the vestibule, come the greatest ornaments of that beautiful Rome which we shall soon astonish with our love. . . . I am right: it is our good Silanus, accompanied by the faithful Appius ”

“ Such a turning, such a burning for Mary Magdalene?
Mary Magdalene has gone down to the Preacher—
The strange Young Man from the western town:
With silk she is shining, with scent she is sweet,
Her eyes are like water, like flowers are her feet,
And when she has come to the Green she falls down
Before the Young Preacher and kisses His feet.
She kisses His feet and she cries out for pardon,
With tears and with kisses His feet are all wet ”

“ Nevertheless the false tradition, arising from early and unjustifiable assumption, that this noble woman, distinctively a friend of the Lord, is the same who, admittedly a sinner, washed and anointed the Savior's feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee and gained the boon of forgiveness through contrition, has so tenaciously held its place in the popular mind through the centuries, that the name, Magdalene, has come to be a generic designation for women who fall from virtue and afterward repent. ”

“ When the Magdalene is introduced into pictures of the ‘Incredulity of Thomas,’ it is in allusion to a famous parallel in one of the Fathers, in which it is insisted, ‘that the faith of Mary Magdalene, and the doubts of Thomas, were equally serviceable to the cause of Christ.’
Among the many miracles imputed to the Magdalene, one only has become popular as a subject of Art. ”

“ Jesus, rising early on the morning of the first day of the week, appeared HERE to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons, 'Mary, touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.' We beseech thee, O Lord God, that we may be helped by the prayers of blessed Mary Magdalene, at whose entreaty thou didst not only raise up her brother who had been four days dead, but didst show thyself after thy resurrection here as the living Lord: who livest and reignest for ever and ever. ”

“ Nor is it only the popularity of Mary Magdalene as the representative and the patroness of repentant sinners which has multiplied her image through all Christendom. As a subject for painting,
Whether the fair one sinner it or saint it,
it is rich in picturesque capabilities. It combines all that can inspire, [Pg 345] with all that can chasten the fancy; yet, when we review what has been done, how inadequate the result! In no class of subjects have the mistakes of the painters, even the most distinguished, been so conspicuous as in the representation of the penitent Magdalene ”

“ Thou sinning harlot, who wert derided of all men and women, till this half-mad Nazarene appeared and made a pastime of the companionship of sinners, because none other would believe on Him."
" 'T is true I was a sinner and a harlot," replied the Magdalene, with downcast eyes and sweet, sad voice. "I was; but there is that in the power of God that can wipe out all sin and set one, with clean feet, afresh along a new path of life, that is all joy, and peace, and faith, and happiness, and love."
"Believest thou this?" asked Rebekah musingly. ”

“ When exhibited to us as the patron saint of repentant sinners, Mary Magdalene is sometimes a thin wasted figure with long dishevelled hair, of a pale golden hue, falling over her shoulders almost to the ground; sometimes a skin or a piece of linen is tied round her loins, but not seldom her sole drapery is her long redundant hair. The most ancient single figure of this character to which I can refer is an old picture in the Byzantine manner, as old perhaps as the thirteenth century, and now in the Academy at Florence. ”

“ I then questioned him again as to whether there had ever been such a family tradition concerning Mary Magdalene as he had related, to which he stoutly maintained there had been, and that Mary Magdalene, the fair Galilean Goddess whose life was interwoven into the family of Jesus of Nazareth, had once been a bright feature in the traditional tree of the Rechabites, but when or by whom it was introduced he did not know. ”

“ All that has come to me in death is the certainty that all this is for right; but I understand it not. I know only that to understand it fully is impossible. I would fain explain away what to me becometh daily more inexplicable, yet more certain. Oh, Magdalene, if thou couldst but travel in the spirit world, as I am doing, thou couldst not but believe. I have seen Jesus, and He hath charged me to bid thee tell His mother that three days hence she come to the house of Martha to see Him raise my body from the grave, where it now lieth; for the glory of the living God will this thing be done. ”

“ THE Magdalene alone seemed inconsolable at the departure of the Christ. The links between her and the Nazarene had been the strongest that could be forged—those that bind a saved soul to its saviour. He had raised the drooping soul, He had sanctified her the Jews called unholy, He had placed her feet on a sure foundation; and He was associated with the great redeeming joy of her life, the possibility of beginning again—a chance the world rarely gives. ”

“ I shall give the legend of the Magdalene here as it was accepted by the people, and embodied by the arts, of the middle ages, setting aside those Eastern traditions which represent the Mary of Bethany and the Magdalene as distinct personages, and place the death and burial-place of Mary Magdalene at Ephesus. Our business is with the Western legend, which has been the authority for Western Art. ”

“ No one should judge Rubens who has not studied him in the Munich Gallery.
The Historical Subjects from the life of Mary Magdalene are either scriptural or legendary; and the character of the Magdalene, as conceived by the greatest painters, is more distinctly expressed in those scriptural scenes in which she is an important figure, than in the single and ideal representations. The illuminated Gospels of the ninth century furnish the oldest type of Mary, the penitent and the sister of Lazarus, but it differs from the modern conception of the Magdalene. ”

“ Verus
It is well, stand up.... I do not keep you by force. But I could not have believed that you had come to this.... I have fallen into one of your Jewish traps. Do you see the crowd posted there, under the portico, spying upon its hostages?... I will not have Roman property defiled.... I bear you no grudge, Magdalene. Love, in me, is not extinguished in a moment; and I possess more constancy than woman.... ”

“ He says the angels come to those who love them, and any one can love them. And when I saw you," he went on, his eyes upon her eager face, "I thought you were the angel I was painting, for you are like an angel, too; and now I shall always love you, and it will be easy to paint. Listen! the Father is coming. You must go quickly, but now I have seen you I must see you again. You are Magdalena, Agust'n's daughter. ”

“ Joseph of Arimathæa
Listen, Magdalene.... I lack neither courage nor loyalty.... Notwithstanding the power of the priests, I have thrown open my house to those who followed him. I know the price which I shall have to pay.... I am prepared to sacrifice everything and life itself to him. But I know his will and I cannot disobey him.... Peter wished to defend him and drew his sword.... He made him put it up into the sheath.... I was at Gethsemane....
Mary Magdalene
Since you were there, why did you not help Peter?... We save those whom we love; we listen to them afterwards!... ”