Temple tax and dove Trader: An interactive VR application at the interface between university teaching and museum exhibition

Abstract

This article examines a VR application developed through collaboration between the disciplines of Ancient Numismatics, New Testament Studies, and Digital Humanities at the University of Tübingen, which was subsequently utilized as a museum exhibition. The virtual exhibition enables visitors to explore a visually reconstructed model of Herod's Temple in ancient Jerusalem. Through interactive and playful elements, participants actively engage with and acquire knowledge about the use of coinage in the temple during the time of Jesus and the early Christians: from exchanging foreign coins at the money changers' tables to pay the temple tax, to buying doves as sacrificial animals, as documented in biblical texts. This paper provides a comprehensive summary of the programming implementation of the VR application, an analysis of the exhibit's didactic objectives, the learning conditions, and the project outcomes.