QRUEL

Since the bible says Jesus was a Carpenter, does it mention anything he ever built ?

I wonder if he ever remodeled his mom (and surrogate dads') bathroom ?

I wonder where and from whom he learned his craft ?

....cause you know that guy was bragging....I can hear it now....

"yeah, I taught the son of god how to be a carpenter, he might be able to save your soul but he didn't know squat about framing houses....and I'll tell ya it's a good thing he finally found his calling cause it wasn't carpentry"

or how about all those people he built anything for....

"Oh yes, I had Jesus the son of god build me that addition. He does great work but his prices are a little high...he wanted my soul !"

fromdownunder

I am actually not sure that the Bible says that Jesus was a carpenter. It does say that Joseph was a carpenter, but without looking up references, I believe there is only one (contended) passage where the possibility is even floated.

So, I am pretty sure this invalidates most of your OP, and would ask what it has to do with Biblical Criticism and History anyway, unless you wish to pursue the "Jesus as carpenter" part of it, and totally ignore the irrelevant parts (the rest of the OP)

Norm

Chris Weimer

It doesn't actually say that he was a carpenter...

QRUEL

yes, I would like to persue the "Jesus as Caprenter?...the rest was following the thought that if he was a carpenter he would have some pretty vocal customers.

Toto

Matthew 13:55
"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

Mark 6:3
"Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

So it doesn't say that he was a carpenter, only that people who knew him referred to him as a carpenter in Mark, or claimed that he was the son of a carpenter in Matt.

There has been some discussion that "carpenter" might have meant a skilled workman, or a skilled scholar.

Nevertheless, entire theories of the Historical Jesus have been spun around the idea of Jesus as working class hero.

QRUEL

thanks for correcting my flawed belief that Jesus was the ultimate carpenter.

But then where did this myth originate ?

I thought it to be true, because it's all I've ever heard about the jesus and then I mistakenly propagated that false statement, sorry !

QRUEL

i guess that answers my question of how that belief got started :-)
hmmm, only one verse...Mark 6:3
I should write a book about the silence of carpentery...
surely anyone who had hired him would have written something historically!
what's Earl D got to say about Carpenters in that other realm ?
don't flame me...i'm kidding !

Toto

There is no Biblical reference to Jesus doing any carpentry work, but extra-Biblical legends have him constructing his own cross.

McDonald thinks that Jesus was a carpenter because Odysseus was a skilled tekton, or craftsman, and Jesus' character was modeled on Odysseus.

Chris Weimer

Lordy - carpenter is too limited a word to translate tekton. Skilled artisan may be better, although that too may seem to limited these days.

fromdownunder

Why does this follow? Fistly, for the sake of the discussion, we will assume that Jesus did exist, and that he was a carpenter, neither of which can be verified.

Given life expectancy in those days, that Jesus did not even know he was God's son until after his baptism (and did not do any "miracles" until after then), that there would have been thousands of "Jesus's" around anyway, and that if he was crucfiied, not a lot of people took a lot of notice at the time, I cannot see why people would be going around saying "Shit!, the Son of God made this table!"

Norm