Topic: TBD

Whose Image? Whose Inscription?
Imperial Tax, Coins, and Palestine

In Matthew 22, the Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with a question about the imperial tax. He answers by asking for a coin and posing a question of his own: whose image is this, and whose inscription?

We'll begin by reading Matthew 22:15-22 and then look at the money in our own pockets. Whose face is on a Canadian coin? What does the inscription claim, and what story do the images tell about this land?

From there, we'll step into Jesus' world: the census tax imposed on Judea, why paying it was seen as surrendering the land to Caesar, and why two groups who rarely agreed came together to question Jesus. We'll then turn to historic Palestine and the coins of the British Mandate, struck in London and bearing the land's name in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, and consider what happened to that currency, and its people, after 1948.

The heart of the session is sharing.

Bring old coins and banknotes whether inherited, gathered on travels, or found in your pocket, and tell the story behind them. Shadia will share coins left to her by her father from Mandate Palestine.