Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

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Philo Sofee
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Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

Post by Philo Sofee »

Jesus as τεκτων
By Kerry A. Shirts
Oct. 24, 2021

Jesus was a carpenter, (τεκτων) or was he? Mark 6:3 describes how the group in his hometown was blown away with his wisdom (σοφια) in preaching at the synagogue, and the miracles (“power” - δυναμεις) he had performed. They are exasperated and ask in a stunned manner “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?” Historically he just didn’t seem to fit with the “in” crowd. We find ourselves today in the exact same position. The great Historical Jesus scholar Albert Schweitzer at the very conclusion of his magisterial sweep of analysis of the Historical Jesus noted “Our relationship to Jesus is ultimately of a mystical kind. No personality of the past can be transported alive into the present by means of historical observation or by discursive thought about his authoritative significance.”[1] Yet we can expand our awareness of Jesus historically through multiple means, whether archaeological, historical, exegetical, scriptural, or through literary creations, of which this particular theme is claimed to be. We know, thanks to Greek exegetical methods that τεκτων can mean in general fashion a wood worker, hence carpenter, a metal worker, stone mason, or some other sort of craftsman work, some of which were plausible for Jesus. Brown notes, “...It could mean that Joseph and Jesus were builders, so that both carpentry and masonry would have been among their skills.”[2]

Paolo Sacchi’s approach to Jesus’ putative “uniqueness” (emphasized earlier in the 1800’s by Reimarus in the scholar’s historical Jesus quest), was to recognize skepticism of the pseudepigraphical materials has probably been taken too far considering interpolations are not all that hard to detect, and all extraneous materials such as the gemara, the Qumran materials, and other literary topoi presenting a wide array of ideas, and instead, focusing on “...similar or even identical topoi [which] were used and interpreted by various groups within Judaism.”[3]
While we have the literary topoi to compare and contrast, in Jesus’ day “there were several role models or categorizations which his audiences could use to make sense of what they heard and saw, depending on how they understood the categorizations and on how they ‘heard’ Jesus.”[4] What we are curious about is why Mark chose, if it is his creation, as some scholars claim, to connect Jesus to being a τεκτων, in this specific case, an actual carpenter, apparently in Nazareth, his hometown. And we have some interesting archaeological information on Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth which helps give a focus on this particular τεκτων issue, and its value.

“Jesus’ position as the woodworker of Nazareth would have assured him a modest but average standard of living, as compared to that of most other Jews in the Galilean countryside… his socioeconomic status as well as his status as a pious Jewish layman from a pious Jewish family also assured him of a modicum of honor in an honor/shame society without which ordinary people would have found existence very difficult.”[5] However, Nazareth presents a difficulty here. “First century Nazareth was a small Jewish settlement with no more than two to four hundred inhabitants.” John Crossan further notes there was no kind of fortification, paved streets, any kind of actual stone masonry as the overlaid modern Nazareth has from the creation of later zealous Christian Crusader and Byzantine missionaries, there is nothing of any kind of public works.[6] So Jesus could hardly have been a carpenter here, of all places. It is more a peasant village with vineyards on the hillsides and winepresses, as Crossan notes.[7]

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament indicates the idea that in the Gospels, the crowds Jesus interacts with are more blind than we get on the surface level, an important theme for Mark. “This is not because they fail to perceive the virgin birth but because they think they have said all there is to be said, whereas they have not even touched as yet on the true mystery of the origin of Jesus.”[8]

The biblical scholar Dale C. Allusion, Jr., probably said it best, “Context affects what one deems possible, appropriate, or desirable to discuss, and speakers will add, subtract, and distort in order to please and entertain, as well as to forestall negative reactions.”[9]

The Gospels do present Jesus as a wandering preacher and healer/magician. In this context, a new archaeological discovery of a house in Nazareth dating to Jesus’ day indicates dwelling there, of course, but more interestingly discovered is the first century synagogue at Magdala just a stone’s throw away from Nazareth. It was in use between 50 B.C. and A.D. 67. Matthew 15:39 states “After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan” (ορια Μαγαδαν) - “other ancient authorities read Magdala or Magdalan.”[10] “Located just 6 miles south of Capernaum, Jesus’ base of operations during his ministry (Matt. 4:13) Magdala was a thriving economic center in the first century,... Magdala was also the center of an international fish export business… the first century synagogue consisted of two large rooms - a vestibule and a reading room - and one smaller room. A mosaic was on the floor and colorful frescoes covered the walls… archaeologist believe the table was used as a place upon which to put the Torah scroll for public reading.”[11] And, in Mark, “the context shows that the σοφια (wisdom) refers to Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue.”[12]

But Nazareth itself was “probably a small and not very-well-to-do village. As a member of a family of a tekton (Mark 6:3) in a period of relative quiet we can envisage an upbringing which was not poverty-stricken but familiar with poverty...Jesus is never described as poor.”[13] Other archaeological discovered synagogues before 70 A.D. are also found at Gamla and Masada and Herodium.[14]

All that to say, Jesus could have been employed or worked in surrounding areas with his skill as tekton. One reason the literary background appears to loom concerning this tekton theme is due to the nature of archaeological work, which “will not help one to know what Jesus said or did, or what the Gospel of Mark fabricated. It will and does help to describe and understand the world and context into which we must place our texts and reconstructions.”[15]

“Nazareth is only about six kilometers from Sepphoris, a city which had been completely destroyed in 4 B.C. by the Syrian legate Quintilius Varus. Herod Antipas (4 B.C. - 39 B.C.) initially constructed it as had capital before he founded Tiberius as a new capital of Galilee around 19 C.E. Excavations show that Sepphoris was a flourishing city with a Hellenistic Jewish stamp. Whether the great theatre, which contained 5,000 people, was built under Antipas is disputed. At all events, in his youth Jesus grew up within the sphere of influence of a Hellenistic city. As he was a τεκτων, a craftsman (like his father), he possibly took part in the construction of Sepphoris.” [16] More interesting, “...most of his [Jesus’] followers will have been active in agriculture. Fishermen and craftsmen are the exceptions: that is the reason why we hear of them. Like his father, Jesus was a τεκτων. According to Justin (Dial. 88), that is someone who makes ploughs and yokes. Other evidence suggests work with wood and stone, i.e., a craftsman; that will especially come to mind in the case of Palestine, a country short of wood.”[17]

Mark may very well have presented Jesus as a τεκτων for a further illustration of his understanding of Jesus for his readers. Robert Price points out an idea of Geza Vermes that this could well be “alluding to a contemporary scribal proverb. When the scribes found themselves stumped on a particular difficult Torah passage they would exclaim, ‘This is something that no carpenter, son of carpenters, can explain’: ‘There is no carpenter, nor a carpenter’s son to explain it.’ In such a context, ‘carpenter’ is a metaphor for ‘skilled expert,’ in this case, skilled in expounding scripture.”[18] The theme of carpenter arises from their own perplexity, not necessarily due to an actual profession of Jesus as his life’s work.

Another angle on this is the allusion of scripture that God is the ultimate Tekton, the Craftsman of the universe itself. Paul describes Jesus as God’s representation of creation - δι ου τα παντα και ημεις δι αυτου - “through whom are all things and we through him.” Even further, 2 Corinthians 5:1 describes our bodies themselves as a house from the master builder, God. And if it is destroyed, we have an eternal house in the heavens, again, built by God. This οικιαν (house) is the earthly tabernacle of our bodies, - επιγειος ημων οικια του σκενους which God fashioned, that is, built, as the Tekton par excellence. The Greek word σκενους (skenous) means “tent”[19] and is the same concept of the Logos “tenting” among us in John 1: 14 - και εσκενωσεν εν ημιν - Tented among us, or dwelt among us. John 1:11 reflects Mark’s use of the tekton, the carpenter, the builder, as it were, coming among us - the people, and the people cannot receive him - ου παρελαβον - as Mark indicated. Richard Carrier also ties the tekton to Jesus saying in Mark 14:58, “We heard him say ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands’ which is clearly an allegory for the resurrection.”[20] The Greek here is quite instructive as well. Αλλον αχειροποιητον οικοδομησω this verb οικοδομεω (oikodomeo), is specifically applied to making buildings, to erect, namely houses. Bauer’s Lexicon says “Literally, of real buildings.[21] It has many other nuances as well, (such as to build character in a person - a carpenter of the soul so to speak, etc.) which is perhaps how Mark plays with the Greek.

Perhaps the wooden literalness (pun intended) of Jesus’ audience at Mark 6 imagining him to be only a mere carpenter of wood and buildings is part of Mark’s point. This tekton is a carpenter all right, but a vastly superior carpenter than just in earthly crass materialistic goods. Jesus, in the synagogue, was building the heavenly knowledge to them from the scriptures, which they could not grasp, and in a double irony, they cannot grasp how a mere earthly carpenter can possibly possess celestial carpentry knowledge, as it were. It isn’t at all about Jesus’ earthly vocation. Mark could have simply put that in as a description of Jesus in order to heighten the reader’s appreciation of the denseness of Jesus’ people who reject him. They are spiritually unable to see the true light, the true carpenter. As John also noted, the true light, the Logos, Jesus, came unto his own, who represent the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend the light. Mark displays this masterfully.

Thomas Brodie notes the context of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth concerning “miracles related to creation, life and death (Mark 4:35-5:43) and this whole section of Mark has significant literary dependence on the (Septuagint) Book of Wisdom. Beginning at Wisdom 10, several chapters of the book of Wisdom speak both of God’s role as creator and life-giver and of the failure of many people to recognize God as the true technites, the supreme craftsman (Wisdom 13:1, cf. Wisdom 13:22, wisdom is technites panton, ‘the worker of all things’). Instead these people’s vision is limited to the kind of vision found in the woodcutter (the tekton, Wis. 13:11); that is all they can see.

In other words, the mindless people in Wis. 13:1-9 do not recognize the technites, the supreme craftsman, and turn their minds instead to lifeless things such as the tekton produces (Wis. 13:10-14:4). And the audience at Nazareth do not recognize the presence of the Creator in Jesus the miracle-worker but can focus only on the world of woodcutting, and so they call him a tekton.”[22] Boers notes Luke showed the Christological claim of Jesus through his quoting Isaiah, something the people who knew him just didn’t grasp, so their “reaction amounted to a failure to recognize Christologically who Jesus was.”[23] Dunn shows parallels with 1 Enoch, Proverbs and the Wisdom literature describing Wisdom’s relation to God, in both establishing earth and heaven, and creating man in God’s image.[24] The Gospels include Jesus as the Logos into this, and it is what the people missed, due to their spiritual blindness.

Dennis R. MacDonald shows another distinct possibility. Mark saw in Homer’s Odysseus a prototype of a wise craftsman to categorize Jesus. Odysseus too was a τεκτων. “Odysseues’s handiwork reinforced his intelligence, resourcefulness, and wit; carpentry was a metaphor for wisdom. The opposite is the case for Mark, and the earliest evangelist may be emulating Homer’s hero, making Jesus even wiser and more powerful than Odysseus. Jesus’ neighbors recognized him as a carpenter, but his wisdom and ability to perform miracles far exceeded what they expected even from a skilled craftsman. Despite these differences, Mark, like Homer, depicted his protagonist as a wise and powerful carpenter who had less honor in his homeland than anywhere else.”[25] Homer shows Odysseus being τεκτοσυναων - (tektosunaon) “skilled” at making his ship, though Liddell and Scott shows means more specifically “the art of a joiner in carpentry,” which MacDonald says he is an “expert.”[26] “Dio Chrysostom used Odyyseus’s carpentry skills to argue that the sage must not be adroit at oratory alone, but be skilled also in matters practical. Odysseus demonstrated competence ‘not merely as a most able speaker’ but also as a carpenter, a builder, and a shipwright,” (Oratio 71:3-4).”[27]

Michael Grant indicates that there is a Hebrew or Aramaic word for carpenter that metaphorically has the meaning of a wise man or a scholar.[28] While he doesn’t identify the word itself, I am sure this is the word חכם. Gesenius indicates the capability of knowing enough to judge, hence “skillful in any art.” And he uses Jeremiah 10:9 to illustrate: חכמים מעשה (maaseh chakamim) “the work of skillful men.” The connection is his number 2 definition, “Wise, i.e., intelligent (Φρονιμος - phronimos) endowed with reason and using it… the range of virtues and mental endowments which were in Hebrew included by this word may be well gathered out of the history and manner of those whose wisdom became proverbial; such as Solomon, Daniel, the Egyptians, etc.”[29] At Deuteronomy 1:13, 15, נבון וחכם - “einsichtig und erfahren - one of insight and experience.”[30] Wilson says the Aramaic word naggar “could either mean a craftsman or a scholar, a learned man.” He is skeptical Jesus was a carpenter.[31]
It’s the little things in scripture that hints to us to look again and perhaps find more than on the surface meets the eye. I think Jesus as τεκτων fits the bill well for this.

Endnotes
1. Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Fortress Press, 2001: 486.
2. Colin Brown, editor, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, (4 vols), Zondervan Publishing House, 1986: 1: 279.
3. Paolo Sacchi, “Recovering Jesus’ Formative Background,” in James H. Charlesworth, Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Doubleday, 1992: 125.
4. James D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, William B. Eerdmans, 2003: 617.
5. John P. Meier, A Marginal Jew, Rethinking the Historical Jesus, (Vol. 2), Doubleday, 1994: 1040.
6. John Dominic Crossan, Jonathan L. Reed, Excavating Jesus, Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, HarperSanFrancisco, 2001” 32.
7. Crossan, Ibid., p. 36f.
8. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (10 vols), editors, Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, Walmart. B. Eerdmans, reprint 1983, Vol. 8: 363.
9. Dale C. Allison, Jr., Constructing Jesus, Memory, Imagination, and History, Baker Academic, 2010: 30.
10. The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament, based on Novum Testamentum Graece, 26th edition, Robert K. Brown, Philip W. Comfort, translators, editor, J. D. Douglas.
11. Robert J. Hutchinson, Searching for Jesus, Nelson Books, 2015: 103-104.
12. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament,” Vol. 7: 514.
13. Dunn, Remembering Jesus, p. 313.
14. Jens Schroter, From Jesus to the New Testament, translated from the German by Wayne Coppins, Baylor University Press, 2013: 120, note 78.
15. Schroter, Ibid., p. 123, quoting Overman, in note 89.
16. Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus, a Comprehensive Guide, Fortress Press, 1998: 165-166.
17. Theissen, Ibid., p. 172. Justin also noted that it was through his carpentry that Jesus “taught the symbols of righteousness and the active life.” in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, Walmart. B. Eerdmans, Roberts, Donaldson editors, Reprint, 1979: 244.
18. Robert M. Price, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, Prometheus Books, 2003: 94-95.
19. Max Zerwick, Mary Grosvenor, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, Unabridged, Revised edition in One Volume, Rome Biblical Institute Press, 1981: 543.
20. Richard Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus, Why We May Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014: 441.
21. Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago Press, 1979: 558.
22. Thomas L. Brodie, Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Memoir of a Discovery, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012: 159. Cf. David Winston, The Wisdom of Solomon, Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1979: Chapters 26-27.
23. Hendrikus Boers, Who Was Jesus? The Historical Jesus and the Synoptic Gospels, Harper & Row, 1989: 6.
24. James D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways, Between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity, SCM Press, 1991: 195-197.
25. Dennis R. MacDonald, The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, Yale University Press, 2000: 18-19.
26. A. T. Murray, Homer, Odyssey, Books 1-12, Loeb edition, Harvard University Press, revised and corrected, 1998, Book 5: 250 (p. 201). Dennis R. MacDonald, The Gospels and Homer, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015:166. Liddell & Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon with a supplement, 1968, Oxford, 1983: 1769.
27. MacDonald, Homeric Epics, p. 210, n. 25.
28. Michael Grant, Jesus, an Historian’s review of the Gospels, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977: 69.
29. Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, Baker Book House, 1979: 277.
30. Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, A Bilingual Dictionary of the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testaments, Brill, 1998: 298.
31. A. N. Wilson, Jesus, W. W. Norton & Co., 1992: 83.
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Shulem
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Re: Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

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You touch on several points in which the vast majority of people don’t contemplate when they think of Jesus as a carpenter. Carpenter of what? Ploughs, yokes, furniture, structures, fencing, or just wood in general? Was it more than just WOOD or did his craft involve stone and perhaps metal? Suddenly we have more than just a craftsman but a master craftsman of trades! Perhaps even a manager or owner of a successful business -- even a lucrative business. Your article, Kerry, takes all this into consideration and then links it to higher meaning that transcends mortal craft for mortal things but the spiritual realm that involves another life not lived on earth. All very interesting and relevant to the biblical story.

We can suspect from the story that JOSEPH was a man of means. He wasn’t a beggarly person of a poor class with little means being dependent on the state whether it was the Jews or the Romans. Joseph was able to flee to Egypt and spent a good while there to escape persecution and save his child’s life from Herod’s evil decree. A man just doesn’t pick up his family and travel to Egypt on moment’s notice unless he has means and resources to pull that off. The journey in and of itself would require transportation, food, access to fresh water and all manner of supplies in which they could carry and purchase on the way and on their return trip. It was not a one-way trip but Joseph had means to get him to Egypt, reside in Egypt, and return to Jerusalem when the time was right. All that takes money and resources and Joseph had what it took to pull it off.

The expenses incurred while in Egypt was enormous. Taking care of the family meant accommodations and food stuffs and fresh water and a place to reside safely. A man such as Joseph, a MASTER CRAFTMAN was certainly welcome and he undoubtedly was skilled in presenting himself as a gentleman and presented his credentials to the craftsman in whom he worked with while residing in Egypt and in the lands south of his homeland. Taking this into consideration leads us to think that Jesus was more than just a lowly workman or poor carpenter.
Philo Sofee
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Re: Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

Post by Philo Sofee »

VERY interesting observations Shulem. Yes the reading of scripture, for whatever reason, strikes all of us with a single manner of understanding and interpreting. Hence the need for meditation as it were, reflection, cognizant mulling it all over, contrasting and comparing. And when it hits, it just bowls you over. There is another way to grasp what you are reading. A "deeper" product. Another angle. It is why the Jews of the Zohar view for four different meanings to scripture. The wooden historical literal as the least spiritual, the least important, the least realistic way, which just seems counter intuitive to us until we begin to get the hanker of how to read in a different manner.
Thank you for your succinct though excellent observations. I am beginning to agree with you, the celestial here opens up in other ways that are every bit as valuable as the terrestrial where we can slam others. That is fun, to be sure, but sometimes, ya just gotta put minds together and enlarge each other beyond simplistic understanding. You have done that for me here, for which I thank you seriously.
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Re: Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

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Thank you for appreciating my comments on your opening post and I’ll probably have more to say on that as times goes on.

Yes, up here in the Celestial Forum we are ladies and gentlemen and do everything we can to take care of each other through mutual respect and genuine affection in appreciating everyone even though we don’t always agree. This forum is the place where we can flesh out our ideas on a higher level because it’s not just the content of what we are sharing but HOW we share it while participating with each other. Plus, we show respect to those whom we are speaking about who are not members of the board and that includes those whom could be perceived as enemies. It’s important that we maintain a high level of respect in this forum. If you should ever catch me off guard or slipping up, please snap at me and tell me right away. But I’m committed to put on my best character while participating in this forum. If I feel a need to slam others I’ll just go down into the lower kingdom and do that. I’ve had lots of practice in the Telestial Forum! If you ever feel a need to vent or just scream, that’s the place to go. Indeed!
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Re: Jesus as τεκτων: Assessments & Insights

Post by Philo Sofee »

I just discovered another fantastically interesting connection with Jesus as carpenter I had not suspected at all. I love it when that happens. When I have time I shall have to update this. I suspect I shall do so from time to time...
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