DALMANUTHA dăl’ mə nōō’ thə (Δαλμανουθά, G1236). Only in Mark 8:10 in the NT, the name of a village near the W shore of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus and His disciples came to this place (εἰς μέρη Δαλμανουθά) following the feeding of the 4,000, an area seemingly contingent or identical with Magadan in the Matthew 15:39 parallel passage (Μαγαδάν, G3400; variant, Μαγδαλά, G3401) in both of which passages the τὰ̀ μέρη and τὰ̀ ὅρια used respectively indicating “regions” suggest the same area, although the names vary.

The ruins on the W shore of the lake N of Tiberias near modern Mejdel (Magdala) may be the location.

The textual variants for Dalmanutha in Mark 8:10 are several, including Magedan, Melegada and Magdala. Rendell Harris has argued that Dalmanutha is in the text because of an inadvertently repeated לחניתא, the real name having disappeared. However, Dalman notes that τὰ̀ μέρη as “districts” is a Graecism, not capable of being reproduced literally in Aram. The variant Magdala may have been the original reading (Mark 8:10mg.).

Bibliography G. Dalman, Die Worte Jesu (1930), 52f.; B. Hjerl-Hansen, “Dalmanutha,” RBL III (1946), 372-384; D. Baly, Geographical Companion to the Bible (1963), 120; C. E. B. Canfield, Saint Mark, CGT Commentary (1963), 257.