Magdalgad
Philistine city, near Ashkelon, where pagan rites take place that Jesus interrupts with spectacular miracles.
Description[edit | edit source]
While the apostles have evangelized Ashkelon with varying success, Jesus sends them ahead.
"Here, I will now go up to that village on the mountain, while you go on to Ashdod"[1]
When evening comes and they gather, Jesus reports on his day:
"I went to Magdalgad. I incinerated an idol and its thuribles, I made a baby boy come into the world, I preached the True God by means of miracles and I took this goat, destined to an idolatrous rite, as My reward."[2]
This is the only passage in the work where this village is mentioned.
Highlights[edit | edit source]
A pagan procession is organized to avert the fate of Pharaoh's wife who is about to die in childbirth. Jesus then performs a triple miracle:[3]
- Miracle of the healed scapegoat.
- Miracle of the burned idol.
- Miracle of the birth.
Its name[edit | edit source]
Magdalgad, Migdal Gad, Al Majdal, means The tower of Gad.
Where is it mentioned in the work?[edit | edit source]
Learn more about this place[edit | edit source]
At the time of Maria Valtorta, the location of this village cited only once in the Bible,[4] was still disputed. The biblical toponym Migdal-gad is among the cities of the Shephelah (lowlands of Judah[5]). Its exact location is not certain: dictionaries and encyclopedias generally indicate the site as uncertain. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1913 suggests two sites with approximate toponymy, at the two ends of the Shephelah :[6]
- El-Mejdel (Majdal), near Ashkelon (about 4 km northeast of Ashkelon),
- or good El-Mejeleh (Khirbet el-Medjdele / Horvat Migdal-Gad, about 20 km west of Hebron) south of Beit Jibrin.
Maria Valtorta’s text decisively opts for the first hypothesis in full coherence with the environment: Magdalgad, a highly pagan city near Ashkelon, a Philistine city largely pagan.
Explore[edit | edit source]
- 31° 40’ 10’’ N / 34° 36’ 30’’ E /
- +45m.
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
Article partially based on the Geographical Dictionary of the Gospel by Jean-François Lavère.
- ↑ GRM 220.1.
- ↑ GRM 220.7.
- ↑ GRM 200.4.
- ↑ Joshua 15:37.
- ↑ The Shephelah (Hebrew: ha-Shfelah, "the lowlands") designates in the Bible and historical geography an area of low hills that transition between: the mountainous plateau of Judah to the east (around Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem), and the Philistine coastal plain to the west (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron).
- ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, volume 6, p. 442.