{Word Study} Carpenter

WORD STUDY – CARPENTER
Mark 6:3: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”
Carpenter: Greek – Tekton: artisan, skilled craftsman, carpenter            Aramaic – nagara: workingman, handyman, menial labor
“I found that the greater the distance I had to travel to visit an owner, the more of an ‘expert’ I became.” – Robert Ringer
“Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” NIV – Jesus (Mark 6:4)
One perception we have of Jesus is that He was a skilled craftsman.  Now I, for one, am impressed with a skilled carpenter.  I worked in construction for about a year after college and I stood amazed watching skilled carpenters saw pieces of wood without a ruler or straightedge and perfectly match the pieces together.  Even with a ruler and straightedge my straight lines looked like electrocardiograms.  After two thousand years we picture Jesus as this skilled craftsman who carried around a pack of precision tools making sculptures out of wooded blocks.
Actually, there was little need for carpenters in those days and a carpenter did not reach the level of a craftsman as it does today. There was little respect for a carpenter as there was little need for wood working except to make plows and doorways which most people were able to do themselves.   Most of the wooded objects were homemade and amateur workers really met the small demands of the trade.  The ones who did follow this trade usually performed it part time and were often involved in agriculture or shepherding full time.  Jesus made tons of agricultureal and shepherding references, but never any references about carpentry. Shepherding and farming were the respected occupations. Carpenters carried a few crude tools made by hand.  This was usually a crude saw, hammer, and plane. He stored all this in a bag which also served as a pillow for family members.
The Greek word for carpenter is tekton which means a skilled craftsman or artisan.  However, the word the people used for Jesus in the Northern dialect of Aramaic was “nagara” which means just a workingman or handyman. It could mean a carpenter as understood by those of Jesus day but is best understood as just menial labor. In fact, if President Bush had spoken Old Galilean Aramaic he would have used the word “nagara” to describe illegal immigrants as the people who did the jobs that no one else wants to do.
Maybe you think I am really being desperate to find material here by talking about Jesus’s occupation, but I believe it is important to put Jesus in the right context.  Here is the master of the universe, the creator of all things, who comes to earth and not only humbles himself by taking on the form of a human being, but supports himself by doing the work that nobody else cares to do.
How many times have I refused to do some task only to have my Savior put His Hand on my shoulder and say: “That’s ok, I will do it if you think you’re too grand to do it yourself.”