The town of Magdala is located on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee.
In modern times, this ancient place was called al-Majdal.
I’ve been there twice, to visit an archaeologically significant synagogue in Magdala.
The synagogue contained the Magdala Stone, which has a carved depiction on its sides and top, of the synagogue itself, giving us a visual representation of what the old synagogue must have looked like.
The synagogue also contained a cache of artifacts dated to the time of Jesus, and it’s possible—though not certain—Jesus taught there.
None of the apostles came from Magdala, yet we know from Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus visited the region.
And we can surmise why. Magdala was the hometown of Mary of Magdala, also known as Mary Magdalene.
See the famous painting of her below by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo.
Mary is sometimes depicted as a repentant sinner or even a prostitute, although there is no indication in the Bible of her being a “loose woman.”
Luke 8: 1-3 says she supported Jesus’ ministry with her own funds which means she came from a relatively wealthy family.
She is an important figure, mentioned around a dozen times in the Gospels.
John 19:25 tells us she stood alongside Jesus’ own mother at the foot of the cross, and the Gospels list her as one of the women who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb.
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A gang of goons, acting on the authority of King Zedekiah of Judah, threw the prophet Jeremiah into a pit.
Two of them were Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashur.
Both men have been historically corroborated through the archaeological discovery of clay seal impressions dated to the sixth century B.C. bearing their names.
And that’s me, below, in the actual pit into which Jeremiah was tossed. Debbie my wife took his short video of me in Jerusalem earlier this year.
But how did Jeremiah survive?
“Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs of the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon…” (Jeremiah 38:7)
So the king’s own men put Jeremiah in there, but a low-ranking Ethiopian decided to take matters into his own hands.
Ebed-melech approached the king—a daunting task that involved great personal risk—and remarkably got permission to get Jeremiah out.
It took 30 men to pull Jeremiah out since he was trapped in the caked mud at the ...
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THE ELIAKIM SEAL
According to the Bible, Eliakim son of Hilkiah was dispatched by King Hezekiah to negotiate with the Assyrians. (Isaiah 22:20)
This was in the 8th century B.C., as the Assyrians, having overrun the northern kingdom of Israel, prepared to attack the southern kingdom of Judah.
Eliakim is a minor figure in Scripture. If we were casting him in a movie, we’d call him a biblical “extra.”
But can Eliakim’s existence be confirmed archaeologically?
In 2014, an excavation in Tel Lachish supervised by Yosef Garfinkel uncovered a seal dated to the 8th century that said “Belonging to Eliakim son of Yehozarah.”
Yehozarah? The Eliakim of the Bible was the son of Hilkiah.
But a second seal, found in the same vicinity, cleared up the confusion.
It read, “Belonging to Yehozarah, son of Hilkiah, servant of Hezekiah.”
Scholars realized immediately that Hilkiah was the grandfather, Yehozarah the son and Eliakim the grandson.
The familial connection, far from undermining the ...
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/liar-obama-iran-i-didnt-have-fire-missile/
by Jim Hoft Oct. 25, 2026 8:15 am CT
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