How Would You Have Made Contributions?

You are quite familiar with the picture of a plate been passed around the isles of a local church for members to add their contributions -- but in the ancient Jewish temples people were not confronted by such a plate when they came to worship.

According the book The Temple -- Its Ministry and Services persons wishing to make a contribution did by dropping money into a chest built in the walls of the Court of Women.

This  Court had a colonnade and within it, against a wall, there were thirteen trumpet shaped chests. Each chest was used to collected money for different uses which were clearly marked on the chest itself. People made contributions in various amounts depending on their financial situation. This could vary widely as seen by Jesus comments about a widow who was making a voluntary contribution of a few small coins at Luke 21: 1-2 which he commended her for.

The chests were set up as follows:

• One chest for temple tax for current year
• One chest for temple tax for past year

Chest 3-8 held funds for turtledoves, wood, incense, and golden vessels.

Sometimes the person could afford more than the stipulated amounts for these temple and other contribution and had other options to choose from:

• Chest 8 was used for money left over from sin offerings.
• Chests 9 through 12  used for money left over from guilt offerings, from the sacrificing of birds, from offerings of Nazarites,  and from offerings of leppers.

Chest 13, finally was there for any voluntary offerings.

All of this was done anonymously and according to each person's financial ability.