What does the name “Magdalene” mean?
The root of the name “Magdalene” is the Hebrew word “migdal,” which means “tower,” “fortress,” or “stronghold.” St. Jerome suggested that there was something about Mary Magdalene that was strong and “tower”-like that earned her the nickname. The more common interpretation of “Magdalene” is “woman from Magdala,” which is entirely possible. It has been suggested that since we have no records dating back to the first century that a place called Magdala even existed that it couldn’t possibly refer to her place of origin, but most scholars, almost without exception, accept this as the most likely origin of the name. Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With The Alabaster Jar, suggested in her second book, The Goddess in the Gospels, that the epithet “the Magdalene” was chosen for its numerical value, 153, in order to associate it with the geometrical shape of the vesica piscis (see figure). The vesica piscis, which was described by the number 153 to indicate its proportion based on the sq
