The central misunderstanding comes from a translation issue that occurred centuries ago. It focuses on a verse in Matthew 13. After Jesus teaches in his hometown synagogue, the crowd asks, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary?”(v. 55). The Greek word tekton, translated here as carpenter, is more accurately rendered as craftsman or builder. At face value, without taking the Jewish cultural background into consideration, a carpenter could fit that description. However, a quick survey of northern Israel’s landscape reveals that the job of carpenter may not be the best fit for that Greek word.
The majority of homes in Israel, are constructed with stone. “Jesus and Joseph would have formed and made nine out of ten projects from stone either by chiseling or carving the stone or stacking building blocks.”Does this mean that Jesus never worked with wood? While He may have had some skill in carpentry the attempt to make a living as a wood carpenter would have had been difficult because trees were, and still are, scarce in that region.
If it is true that Jesus was the son of a stonemason, he would have been trained in stonemasonry, following his father’s profession. With this background knowledge, it is helpful to take a fresh look at his language and that of his followers when they speak of stones in the Bible. For example, after the chief priests, scribes, and elders questioned Jesus’s authority in the temple, Jesus shared the parable of the wicked tenants. Upon completion, he “looked directly at them and said, ‘What then is this that is written: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?”‘” (Luke 20:17–18; Ps. 118:22, emphasis mine).
Again, when defending himself before the religious leaders, Peter cites the same Old Testament passage, “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11–12, emphasis mine). Peter quotes directly from Psalm 118:22, a passage where, as John Wesley explains: “The commonwealth of Israel and the church of God are here and elsewhere compared to a building, wherein, as the people are the stone, so the princes and rulers are the builders. And as the master builders rejected David, so their successors rejected Christ” (emphasis mine).The stone mentioned here is a reference to the messianic lineage of David, and the concept of a cornerstone would have been quite familiar to those building with stone.
Peter writes, “[Y]ou yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5, emphasis mine). Notice that Peter refers to building a house with stones, an image that would have been quite familiar to those listening, and something Jesus himself may have been skilled in doing as a trained stonemason.
Whether Jesus was a carpenter working with wood or a stonemason has no bearing on his work as Savior of the world, but it does help us when we read the Bible, bringing a fresh sense of his words and their meaning. This knowledge enhances our picture of him, bringing him into sharper focus. Can you sense the loving grip of a master craftsman clutching you in his hand as he molds and shapes you into the image of Christ for his glory? Of all the professions in the world, Joseph, Jesus’s earthly father, was a craftsman, a stonemason. He could have been a vineyard worker, a fisherman, or a sandal maker, but he wasn’t.
Remember, Jesus learned this trade from his father, and he is still shaping his followers today, fitting them together into a spiritual house, a temple that is built to bring glory to God.
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March 9, 2018
Prophetic Press Releases
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