May 8th 2012

What does it mean that Jesus was a “Carpenter”?

Read Mark 6:3

So many times we read that Jesus was the son of a “carpenter” (Matthew 13:33) or like in today’s scripture that Jesus himself was a “carpenter”. We understand that Jesus did this before the age of 30, when someone would be old enough to become a rabbi. But what does it mean that Jesus was a “carpenter”?

So often when we read this, we picture Jesus sitting down making wooden tables and chairs, we picture that scene in the Passion of the Christ where Jesus makes a very high table for rich people. Generally, when we think of Jesus being a carpenter we think of him working with wood. Problem with this is during the time of Jesus, the people of Israel used very little wood. So if there wasn’t a lot of wood work what did a “carpenter” do? The word “carpenter” in Greek is “Tekton” which means “craftsman”. One of the major resources they had in Israel was stones. They were used for construction, tools, and even food production. Jesus as a “craftsmen” would have worked primarily with stones.

So why is it important to picture Jesus working with stones? Check out Isaiah 51:1-2, and spend some time meditating on how we are stones from the same quarry as Abraham, Sarah, and all the great people of faith.