Well he was a carpenter. It isn’t clear what the word means though - such professions tend to not be mentioned much in historical documents that survive and so all we have is the word where meanings can change over the years. Worse, he was in a Hebrew country likely speaking Arabic, then that was translated to “baby greek” which is where most of our information comes from - this leaves plenty of room for meaning shift it terms. Most think carpenter was something like a cabinet maker or furniture maker - and in that part of the world we see dirt/stone buildings in archeology (this might be survivor bias - wood buildings if any are unlikely to have left evidence behind, but generally we wouldn’t expect them to have used wood). Thus the odds are Jesus never built any buildings, but there is some small room for doubt.
I’ve never heard that before. Given the language issues that isn’t impossible, but everything I’ve heard suggest working with wood, but probably cabinets or furniture not houses. We do know that jobs involving working with wood existed then, but exactly what anyone was doing is really hard to pick out. I’m going to stick with cabinet maker as most likely but there isn’t enough evidence to be confident in anything.
Well he was a carpenter. It isn’t clear what the word means though - such professions tend to not be mentioned much in historical documents that survive and so all we have is the word where meanings can change over the years. Worse, he was in a Hebrew country likely speaking Arabic, then that was translated to “baby greek” which is where most of our information comes from - this leaves plenty of room for meaning shift it terms. Most think carpenter was something like a cabinet maker or furniture maker - and in that part of the world we see dirt/stone buildings in archeology (this might be survivor bias - wood buildings if any are unlikely to have left evidence behind, but generally we wouldn’t expect them to have used wood). Thus the odds are Jesus never built any buildings, but there is some small room for doubt.
Dont quote me but isnt the impression that Joseph wasnt a carpenter, but instead a stone mason?
Like you said, much more likely with the material they used for building and just as modest of a position for a commoner of his stature
I’ve never heard that before. Given the language issues that isn’t impossible, but everything I’ve heard suggest working with wood, but probably cabinets or furniture not houses. We do know that jobs involving working with wood existed then, but exactly what anyone was doing is really hard to pick out. I’m going to stick with cabinet maker as most likely but there isn’t enough evidence to be confident in anything.