Saturday, April 21
Until 2006, archaeologists didn't know where the Biblical town of Magdala was. Magdala, as you might recall, was the hometown of Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus and from whom was said seven demons were cast out by Him.
This was our last site of the day. When we first entered, we were on a large, concrete patio sheltered by a Ramada jutting out from the roof of a building. Tables with souvenirs filled about half the space, while café tables, chairs and a couple of ice cream coolers filled the other half. There were two rooms in the building with more souvenirs, one having a drink cooler. While Roman made arrangements for someone on the staff at Magdala to lead the tour (Magdala is Catholic owned with a chapel on the site; some of the priests that are there give tours and it was one of the Fathers that guided our tour that afternoon), we all raided the gift shop! I probably looked at each of the three areas twice before I finally headed for the register (I like to have time to browse and make up my mind). By then I was pretty much the last person, I could hear Roman hand his mic over the priest and the tour beginning, but at this point, I was tired and decided I would catch up with them when I was finished shopping. After all I could still hear everything over the Whisperer, so I didn't need to be there, right?
"Are you going to join the group?" Roman asked, approaching just as I was standing at the register.
"Yeah, in just minute, I promise." I replied, feeling hurried, but hoping to reassure him. When I make promises, no matter how big or small, I always do my best to keep them.
To this day, I don't regret shopping at Magdala, but I do regret not hearing all that the priest (sorry I forgot his name) had to say at first, but I am happy with the parts I did get to hear:
I hurried down several steps to the first part of the tour: the ruins of a huge synagogue sheltered by a wooden Ramada lay there, with beautiful mosaic tiles decorating the far end where the rabbi would have stood.
(The Magdala synagogue)
(The mosaic floor)
The priest pointed out that in the center of this rectangular mosaic floor design was a circle:
(This circle design was Egyptian in origin, and was a symbol of resurrection and new birth.)
Next we walked over to the ruins of one of the neighborhoods close to the synagogue. The picture directly below shows one of the small markets where fishermen would sell fish. How did they keep them fresh? See the square-like hole in the bottom right hand corner? It was an in-ground that would be filled with water and the fish would be kept in it until they were sold.
(Another fish tank in the Magdala market)
(Magdala neighborhood and market)
We then walked a little ways to the Duc In Altum (Latin for 'the deep'), a building which houses about seven different chapels and honors the women of the New Testament and Jesus' ministry when he was alive. The priest told us that the acoustics were perfect in the atrium, so we sang Amazing Grace as we entered. It sounded amazing! But you're a musical theatre fan like me, I would have belted out "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera, or "Never Enough" from The Greatest Showman.
The atrium, known as the Women's Atrium, had eight pillars circling the perimeter, with a small fountain in the middle. Seven of the eight pillars had the names of important New Testament women engraved in gold lettering. The eighth remained blank, so that you could imagine the name of the woman, or women in your life that are close to you and helped you in your walk of faith. I already had one name in mind...
There were four small chapels, two on either side of the atrium, and one large one straight ahead when you walked in the door. The four chapels had handmade mosaic murals depicting key moments in Jesus' ministry:
(Jesus raising Jairus' daughter from the dead. To the right was our guide.)
(The next pictures of the other three chapels courtesy of Google. I didn't take pictures them because I had almost no space on my phone.)
(Jesus walking on water.)
(Jesus calling the disciples.)
(Jesus driving out Mary Magdalene's seven demons. Look at her real close and you can see them.)
The priest then lead us into the large middle chapel, also known as The Boat Chapel:
As you can see in the picture above, an actual boat had been built and was placed in front of the huge window at the end. This window looks out on the Sea of Galilee, so that whenever you looked down the center aisle, the boat appeared to be sailing the Sea. Also, notice the individual paintings of the 12 disciples on either side along the walls. Each disciple has his name written in gold above his head, a halo, is holding a scroll and some kind of scepter/lance, and is looking straight ahead. All except one. You see, the priest explained that since the Duc In Altum was built in honor of Jesus' ministry before His crucifixion, all of His disciples, including Judas are painted along the walls, but the artist left a distinct difference between the Betrayer and the other 11:
Above are two examples: Bartholomew and Andrew, with all the traits I just listed. And below stands Judas: No name written in gold, no halo around his head, holding a money bag, and looking to the side:
The priest went on to say that whenever the artist had finished, one of the other priests had come in to see the completed products and decided on bringing his dog along. That dog ran straight up to the Judas painting and started to attack it!
"And you can still see the scratch marks where the dog attacked the painting," The priest said.
He was right. Look at the zoomed in picture below:
The priest then lead us to the last chapel, and my 3rd God Coincidence. We went down some stairs off to the left of the Women's Atrium, and entered a room to our right known as the Encounter Chapel. As soon as I entered, I my eye was immediately drawn to the mural on the back wall:
(This painting depicts the exact moment the hemorrhaging woman touched Jesus' garment hem.)
"When the artist finished painting this," The priest said. "She was asked why no ones face is shown. And she answered it was because that woman would have been a social outcast, she would have been looked down upon and kept her head down. For twelve years that would have been her perspective."
The priest ended our tour there, so we thanked him and headed back to where we began. On the way, I caught up with friend of mine, Miss Virginia, who knew me from church and my grandparents. She's such a sweet, gentle lady, and a great woman of God. As we neared the gift shop, she expressed that she still needed to shop for souvenirs, so I helped her pick out a few things and even got a couple extra things myself (In case you're wondering, I had gotten a few bracelets, a honey wand made from pure olive wood, a few postcards, and a bottle of olive oil for my brother [he's an amazing chef by the way]).
Tired, and ready for some dinner and a shower (Roman warned us against showering until after we ate, saying a shower relaxes you more), we all got back on the bus and drove back to the hotel; and I was left with dozens of new memories and information buzzing in my head of all we had done today, especially this last image which gave me yet another bit of hope that I too would encounter Jesus this way...
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