Joseph and Jesus as Tekton

[Fawkes]

While having one of our fun talks, the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, where “Indy” hunts for the Holy Grail came up. I pointed out that in the movie, Indiana Jones chooses the wooden cup because Jesus was a carpenter. I mentioned it would have been odd for Jesus to go whittle a cup while preparing for the Passover meal. At this, he stated that the Greek used in Scripture is tekton. He thought that it meant mason. I did a little looking online (take it for what it’s worth), and found one site that said in the modern Greek it does mean mason, but in ancient Greek it meant craftsman and was sort of a catchall word. Can anybody shed some more light on this for me?

 

[FCEGM]

While having one of our fun talks, the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, where “Indy” hunts for the Holy Grail came up. I pointed out that in the movie, Indiana Jones chooses the wooden cup because Jesus was a carpenter. I mentioned it would have been odd for Jesus to go whittle a cup while preparing for the Passover meal. At this, he stated that the Greek used in Scripture is tekton. He thought that it meant mason. I did a little looking online (take it for what it’s worth), and found one site that said in the modern Greek it does mean mason, but in ancient Greek it meant craftsman and was sort of a catchall word. Can anybody shed some more light on this for me?

A book I have on the life of St. Joseph mentions this understanding of “tekton”; so he would have been a skilled workmen. From the book:

. . .the Greek manuscripts of the gospel use the word tekton, which is translated into English as ‘carpenter.’ Literally, however, it could merely mean ‘craftsman,’ just as its Latin equivalent faber can do. But what kind of ‘craftsman’ would this make St. Joseph? The testimony of the apocrypha, while of course not reliable is none the less interesting because it shows what the readers of the legends were expected to believe. The evidence from the apocrypha is unanimously in favor of wood-working as St. Joseph’s trade, except for one reference that speaks of him as a builder of houses, and this single comment does not exclude the validity of the others. . .

All early tradition. . .uniformly thinks of Joseph as a worker in wood. Does this mean that Joseph worked exclusively in wood? Might he not also have been a craftsman making homes, and therefore working in stone and baked clay and cement, since the houses were of such material? These two forms of the same occupation would not be incompatible, and the descriptions of them would not be anachronistic. Joseph: the Man Closest to Jesus, Francis L. Filas, S.J…

 

[Fawkes]

Thank you, Frances. Another website made the claim that there were few trees in Nazereth, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to be a carpenter of only wood. A craftsman or general contractor seems much more likely, IMO.

 

[Huiou_Theou]

The word tecton – and architect – go together. But it is far more than woodworking.
Here is contemporary Greek (Koine/common) of Jesus’s day – the Old Testament in Greek;

Exodu 31:4 διανοεισθαι και αρχι-τεκτον-ησαι εργαζεσθαι το χρυσιον και το αργυριον και τον χαλκον και την υακινθον και την πορφυραν και το κοκκινον το νηστον και την βυσσον την κεκλωσμενην

Arch (leading/elder) tekton (skill/trade) – working, and this architecht did guess what:
Exodu 31:4 To devise whatsoever may be artificially made of gold, and silver, and brass,
Exodu 31:5 Of marble, and precious stones, and variety of wood.

These things included the silverware/vessels/chalices of the temple service which were made of Gold. Where it says “variety of wood”, the Greek repeats tekton without “arch”, but it makes it clear that carpenter is a “wood” tekton

So, I would agree – where Matthew says:

Matth 13:55 ουχ ουτος εστιν ο του τεκτονος υιος ουχ η μητηρ αυτου λεγεται μαριαμ και οι αδελφοι αυτου ιακωβος και ιωσηφ και σιμων και ιουδας

“the carpenters son” – it actually reads, “the craftsman’s son” because it doesn’t actually say “wood” tekton to be specific.

I laughed at the Logic of Indiana Jone’s decision too… Joseph might have been more talented than he is given credit for.

 

[pablope]

While having one of our fun talks, the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, where “Indy” hunts for the Holy Grail came up. I pointed out that in the movie, Indiana Jones chooses the wooden cup because Jesus was a carpenter. I mentioned it would have been odd for Jesus to go whittle a cup while preparing for the Passover meal. At this, he stated that the Greek used in Scripture is tekton. He thought that it meant mason. I did a little looking online (take it for what it’s worth), and found one site that said in the modern Greek it does mean mason, but in ancient Greek it meant craftsman and was sort of a catchall word. Can anybody shed some more light on this for me?

Indy chose the cup, because, he reasoned, Jesus was a simple man and would have used a simple or ordinary cup, not a cup with jewels or the like. I think Indy said he chose “a carpenter’s cup.”

 

[Loml]

I thought the cup was made of clay