More About the Coin Trumpet, Trumpeting Your Giving
and a game about that...

Here's an interesting article about the Temple's "donation trumpet" collection points. Because there is no definitive or single description in scripture of the treasury or the trumpets, most of our information comes from scattered references in the Old Testament and Jewish rabbinic commentaries like the Mishnah.

SOME of the trumpets were for the "temple tax" due from each male Jew. Others were free-will offerings or offerings for forgiveness (sin offerings). (Source)  The point is that there were MANY TYPES of offerings a person could make, which begs the question, how does the church teach and encourage those many types.

A game of "coins in a bucket" (or metal offering plate if you have one) or your own treasury trumpet creation that makes a noise is a good starting point. How then could you do a second round of this game SILENTLY? Or so that only one person (in the role of Jesus) could see? ("He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury." Mark 12:41)

If your church still uses metal offering plates, then I would definitely "borrow" one for this lesson. You might even have a discussion about how to put an offering in it in a "no-showy" way.  Even a wooden offering plate might make a good sound if your coins are big enough. Get yourself some 50 cent or dollar coins to toss.

To demonstrate "silent giving" with a game, after using a noisy bucket or offering plate, you could put a TOWEL in the bucket and have kids first stand over the bucket and drop their coin in silently, and then move back and try again.  Adjust distance and the towel to see how far they can throw it and still remain silent. It will make a great memory hook.

For those making a trumpet-offering box, teaching about it, or playing a game about it, the shape was apparently narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Whether or not it made a big noise is questionable unless the person made sure their coins hit the metal (bronze). It may be that they were simply "shaped like trumpets." But Jesus and his disciples picked up on this "trumpeting" metaphor more than once. It wasn't just the show of money, it was the show of dress and prayers and penance that was hypocritcal --given how they oppressed the poor, refused to forgive others, and talked down to the sinners.

Matthew 6:

Luke 18:

@Neil MacQueen posted:

In Mark 12, the widow's mite was a coin "offering" that she and others put into the "treasury" -- a receptacle for money with the odd Greek name of "gad-zof-oo-lak'-ee-on."  Offerings were gifts used to support the Temple and its charities.  The word Mark uses for the coin that Widow contributed is "lepton" -- which is worth less than a penny! The story has Jesus WATCHING what people put in. Rather unnerving to think about, isn't it?   

In Hebrew, Jesus would have called an offering given in worship a "minkah."  In the Temple at the time of Jesus there were thirteen "trumpet shaped" collection boxes that people would throw offerings into. Some of them were for coins, and according to experts, the SOUND the coins would have made going into the trumpet would have told others how much they gave!  (No wonder Jesus taught the lesson of the widow's two coins!  They hardly made a noise in those trumpets. Thank God, Jesus has better hearing.) In Hebrew these trumpets were known as "Yobels."

If you have time in your lesson, stop here and have students "PITCH PENNIES" into a brass or metal bucket. You can have other players turn their back and try to guess how many coins the player tossed. Remember to point out that the number of pennies you gave didn't matter to Jesus, it's how many you had to give that mattered.