Why was Jesus a carpenter?

Why was Jesus a carpenter?

Because if he was a lawyer nobody would follow him.

reply to post by infobrazil


Because they were not looking for electricians yet.

So he could make money. Even the son of God needs a job.

Originally posted by Kapyong
Gday,

Carpenter is a bad translation.

In fact,
in the NT manuscripts, Jesus is described in Greek as a "tekton".

A "tekton" is a master craftsman who may work in various materials such as wood, stone, ivory, even cloth.

(Of course, Jesus was myth anyway - he never existed in history.)


K.

Pontius Pilate mentioned Jesus in his writings.

books.google.com...

[edit on 21-9-2009 by Keeper of Kheb]

[edit on 21-9-2009 by Keeper of Kheb]

What other job would the Master Builder and Creator of all things do except build? Create? I think its a wonderful symmerty, and another pointer to who He is.

Besides being a profit, the most technical position that could be conjured up for the time era was...my guess ...a "carpenter"
Sorry for the short rant..Not evan an interest of mine but, it was a fictious book written by man?

Originally posted by Selahobed
What other job would the Master Builder and Creator of all things do except build? Create? I think its a wonderful symmerty, and another pointer to who He is.

I absolutely love it when someone makes a point better than I can. Christ not only spoke in parables, he lived one as well. He was the example, the story of what a kind of ideal life would be like. One who created, one who provided, one who worked hard and honestly, one who listened to his parents, teachers, one who sacrificed for all of mankind.

Gday,

Originally posted by Keeper of Kheb
Pontius Pilate mentioned Jesus in his writings.

books.google.com...

No he didn't.
Those alleged writings of Pontius Pilate are well-known forgeries.

Your link is broken.


K.

Wood was in short supply even back then in that area.

It would have been used for other purposes.

If he was a carpenter he probably built fishing boats.

The guys back in the days of sailings ships that kept it water tight and maintained it were called "carpenter mates"

But wasn't he a rabbi too?

reply to post by infobrazil


He was a carpenter in the flesh because as a spirit, the Word of God (Jesus) was the "creator" of the world and everything in it. Jesusu was the spiritual "carpenter (creator)" while God the Father was the "architect (mastermind) behind the creation or carpentry work. In the flesh, Jesus was a carpenter as a symbol of what He really was before coming in the flesh. Freemasons as a secret society didn't even exist until the Knights Templar were disassembled. They re-emerged as the Scottish Rite and FreeMasons. This, of course started durring the crusades so it was long after the death of Jesus.

reply to post by calcoastseeker


He was a carpenter before he was a rabbi

Carpenter early years. Savior of Mankind mid-life years.

Also, he wasn't a rabbi of his times through the official channels. His followers referred to him as rabbi because he was their spiritual teacher.

Maybe he was a carpenter because he enjoyed building things.

Kind of like how masons enjoy building things(yeah I think there is some rough edges around their society but who isn't guilty of this.)

reply to post by silver tongue devil


Jesus is God in human form, and God is a creator so it makes perfect sense to me. In a way you could say he built the earth when in heaven and during his time here on earth he continued to build things.

Jesus knew the future, and had seen the village people.

He wanted to be the construction worker but no such thing existed at that time, so he settled for carpenter.

Originally posted by Kapyong
Gday,

Originally posted by Keeper of Kheb
Pontius Pilate mentioned Jesus in his writings.

books.google.com...

No he didn't.
Those alleged writings of Pontius Pilate are well-known forgeries.

Your link is broken.


K.

I never heard they were forgeries. can you direct me to information that supports what your saying? Also link works i just checked it. maybe it wasn't working when you tried it but it is now.


Keeper

Groupies--


Unfortunately the anonymous writers of the 4 canonical council-approved 'Greek Gospels' were not always very careful about translating Galilean Oral Aramaic into written 1st century Koine Greek...

The Greek term 'Tekton' ('craftsman' 'builder') is probably an (incorrect) guess from the earlier Galilean Aramaic term 'Naggar' which means 'student-scholar' (i.e. of the Torah). It had nothing originally to do with 'Carpenter' or even 'Carpenter's son'.

It could also loosely refer to any man who (even un-trained in a school) had already been able to memorise large portions of the oral Aramaic targums and other talmudic type oral literature and could spew it out upon request in religioius disputes and discussions.

In 1st century Judaea, the idea that a person could craft furniture from pieces of wood was considered to be something almost akin to magic--either way, could only be achieved by persons who had specific training and skill that non-specialists did not have.

Sometimes 'Naggar' also could carry with it the connotation of 'riddler' or 'speaker of wisdom' e.g. the old Aramaic proverb:

Go ask a Naggar what this means,
or a speaker of Riddles what the real meaning of this is !

The idea behind this mentioning a 'Naggar' (especially in a rural backwater succh as 1st century Galilee) would be like saying something like , 'go find some college kid and ask him what it means !'

'Is this not the Naggar, the son of Mary, whose brothers Yehudah and Shimeon and Hosea and Yakkkov we all know, and all of his sisters too? And they all threw insults at him.' (see 'Mark' chapter 6:3) perhaps the implication is that Naggar here in this context means 'rabinnic student' who had not yet been formally declared a Rabbi or Moreh ('teacher')

But also COMPARE: 'Matthew' chapter 13:55-56

'Is this not the Naggar's SON? And isn't his mother called Miryam? And are not all these his brothers and sisters here with him, Yakkov, and Hosea and Judah and Shimeon? So where did he pick all of this stuff up from, then?'

Either way, few parables placed into the mouth of R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean Nazir (Gk. 'Iesous') in the 4 'canonical' council approved Greek Gospels do not seem to talk alot about carpenter-work, more about farming ('a farmer went forth to sow his field...'; 'what man when tilling his soil can make straight furrows if he turns his eyes from the plough?' etc.) and also fishing and sheep-herding &tc. than say, woodwork.

The connotation of switching the original Aramaic word NAGGAR ('scholar') for a new word 'Carpenter, or Builder' (Gk. Tekton)
might have something to do with the colouring of the later traditions in the Greek pertaining to his life (i.e. as told backwards from the point of view of the crucifixion narratives) especially in the light of the WORDS in Zechariah 6:9 (Behold the Man ! He shall be called the NAZIR ! It is HE who WILL re-BUILD the TEMPLE of YHWH...) which the Judaean Praefect Pontius Pilate in the 4th gospel (whoever wrote that one !) throws into his face when he 'offers' (mockingly) Yehoshua to the crowds below ('Behold the Man !') wearing his Crown of Thorns.

So little can be gleaned historically from the 4 Greek canonical gospels (since they are propaganda tracts, essentially, not history) about the personal background of R. Yehoshua because the gospels were transmitted in GREEK, with a wide gulf separating older Aramaic traditions.

Interestingly enough, there are traditions in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism that see carpentry tools as sacred. Their various aspects are associated with different manifestations of the sacred, different religious functions, etc. This is a fairly non-mainstream view, but at one time it was widely accepted. I don't have a direct link for you, but This book here has a whole chapter on it..

I have read that the human brain is "hardwired" to recognize and categorize objects into a handful of different categories...these include "other humans," "animals," "plants," and "tools," with maybe one or two others.

that means that infants (or those brought up with no education) would somehow be able to automatically identify the difference between a human and a non-human animal, for example. It is very interesting that "tools" is included...this means that the human brain automatically can tell when objects are suitable as tools (say, a stick for prying up a rock) and when they are not (say, a cloud or a puddle of water)...at least not directly, that is. Obviously tools have been very important if not central in the human rise to the top of the food chain, given how pathetically weak our physical bodies are compared to a bear or a tiger.

If this is true and the concept of using tools is indeed deeply ingrained in our brains, it is little wonder tools have been seen as sacred or connected with the sacred in many diverse cultures. Early man must have felt an almost religiious awe when he discovered how much simple tools could multoply the force of his own natural power (cue beginning of the movie "2001").

reply to post by Sigismundus


Is there any particular reason why you always have to call the people by their full names, rather than the names they are commonly called?

It doesn't really matter to me either way honestly, but it seems a bit odd to do such a thing. I just kind of figure the purpose of a name is to identify something so we all know what is being referred to. So when you give me this long name for Jesus and others, I don't see the reason behind it.

I would guess you have a reason since it takes a bit of effort to do such, and I am curious as to what that reason is.

Obvious mistranslation.
You have to wonder why an heir to the throne of David, traveling around the known world in his younger years with the 3rd wealthiest man during that point in history---a relative and later "father" or "protector" who was THE metal supplier to the Roman empire, BTW, is always portrayed as a poor carpenter.

Manipulation, methinks, to make the poor accept their lot in life as being "like Jesus".

Gday,

Originally posted by Keeper of Kheb
I never heard they were forgeries. can you direct me to information that supports what your saying?

Seriously?
How about Wiki :

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

These are known to be forgeries.
As any real research will show you.


No,
your link does NOT work for me.
You must have an account link in there or something.
Why don't you just quote the details?

Did you mean this book:
books.google.com...
A well known forgery.


K.


[edit on 23-9-2009 by Kapyong]