Page:Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, volume 1.djvu/29

Rh Here we have not only the conventional explanation of Magdalene from the town of Magdala, but we can see under the versification a reference to another etymology, according to which she was called Magdalene because of the plaiting of her hair (from the Hebrew root gadal to plait or twine). Thus John Lightfoot says in his Hebrew and Talmudic Exercitations on Matthew xxvii. 56 'You may with good reason doubt whether she was called Magdalene from the town Magdala or from that word of the Talmudists, a plaiter of hair.' So it seems that Vaughan has had access to some tradition coinciding with what we find in the Talmud. On turning to the Talmudic traditions we find that the Jews have identified Mary Magdalene with Mary the mother of Jesus, and accordingly present Jesus as the son of Miriam, the woman's hair-dresser. (See T.B. Shabbath 104 b, and Streane, Jesus Christ in the Talmud.)

Vaughan knows then the Talmudic tradition; but he also knows that Magdala can be explained by the Hebrew word migdol, a tower; this is clear from the line

So we have in his tradition

Now let us turn to Syrian soil. Bar Ṣalibi tells us, in his comments on Matt. (see Loftus' translation p. 34), 'She was called Magdalen, because she inhabited the tower of Astrat, or the tower of Shiloah; or from pleated, because her hair was pleated.' Here we have two explanations of the involved tower, one Turris Stratonis, the other the tower of Siloam; and we have also the woman's hair-dresser. This brings us very near to Ishoʿdad and his comments on Matt. xxviii. i who says that Mary Magdalene 'was called Magdaletha, according to some, because she had lived in Turris Stratonis (Caesarea); according to others, from the tower of Siloah: others say, that Mary the sister of Lazarus was a harlot, who was called Magdaletha from the tower which she built for herself from the wages of harlotry,' etc. Here we touch the traditions of Bar Ṣalibi at an earlier point: and I begin to suspect that Vaughan may have had access to the Syriac tradition at some such point. His erudition is now evident, though it may at first have been unsuspected. And if this is the direction in which to look for the explanation of the references to Mary Magdalene, may not a similar quarter contain the material for the story of Salome and the ice? That is as far as I can take the matter with material as yet known to me. It will be conceded that Ishoʿdad, at all events, is not an ordinary commentator.