BUIDINGS AND STRUCTURES
The recently discovered assembly hall or shul for the New Testament Jewish community of Magdala is currently the oldest one excavated in Galilee and one of only seven known from the first century so far discovered in all of Israel. Until the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, synagogues were built in a rectangular form with benches along the four walls. Afterward, the Jews constructed synagogues in Galilee in imitation of the temple with a Torah shrine and a pulpit at the front side.
Matthew 4:23 reads, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” Most likely, he would have visited the one in Magdala.
The main room of the Magdala synagogue could seat about 200 persons. The building had a mosaic floor with separate chambers for public Torah readings, private study, and the storage of the scrolls. Outside was a basin for the ritual washing of hands.
In the center of the synagogue stood a stone block unlike anything previously discovered. Carved on its sides are a seven-branched menorah, a chariot of fire, and a series of symbols of ritual objects used in the Jerusalem Temple. A large rosette consisting of six petals surrounded by six identical petals adorns the top. Some consider the object may be one of the most important recent discoveries in biblical archaeology. The 2016 excavation season brought to light a decorated bronze incense shovel used for transferring embers from place to place and a bronze jug. Exodus 27:3 mentions such implements: “You shall make (the alta’rs) pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels … of bronze.”
The construction of a Christian retreat in Magdala first revealed the synagogue and an adjacent settlement with streets, houses adorned with mosaics, workshops, and ritual baths (mikvaot).
Magdala website, “Synagogue.”