Saint Joseph - A Terrible Carpenter?

[Tabone]

My wife went shopping the other day and picked up a book about the story of Christmas, for our daughter. Our daughter is about eighteen months old and loves flipping through board books. And bringing them to us for us to read them. So, I was quickly presented with this book. And lo and behold, I learned something new! Saint Joseph was, apparently, a terrible carpenter. In the picture, anyway, he is busy building something vaguely basket shaped, under the text “they prepared for the coming of Baby Jesus.” And it looks like something that was built by a absent minded child…

Perhaps the illustrator simply had no idea that Saint Joseph was a carpenter by trade? Perhaps the cultural meme of incompetent husbands has finally made it’s way from TV ads to Saint Joseph? Perhaps Saint Joseph really was the world’s worst carpenter? Perhaps the illustrator had seen too many mangers and thought that Saint Joseph was responsible for building it?

We may never know.
Amusing none the less.

Merry Christmas!
-Tabone

 

[oneofmany]

I heard Steve Ray on Catholic Answers the other day say Joseph and Jesus were not necessarily carpenters but worked in a quarry breaking up stones to put on the houses, etc.

He takes people on a pilgrimage to where Jesus was raised and there is a quarry. The men work in it and Steve Ray said that is what men did in Jesus’ day. That is what Jesus and Joseph would have done.

But I agree with you. If you are showing Joseph as a carpenter then show him making something more than a basket although men who fished would also need to make baskets.

 

[SAVINGRACE]

I heard Steve Ray on Catholic Answers the other day say Joseph and Jesus were not necessarily carpenters but worked in a quarry breaking up stones to put on the houses, etc.

He takes people on a pilgrimage to where Jesus was raised and there is a quarry. The men work in it and Steve Ray said that is what men did in Jesus’ day. That is what Jesus and Joseph would have done.

But I agree with you. If you are showing Joseph as a carpenter then show him making something more than a basket although men who fished would also need to make baskets.

It’s pretty clear in Scripture.

Matthew 13:55 “Isn’t this the carpentars son?”

Mark 6:3 "Isn’t this the carpentar. Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?

 

[Elizium23]

It’s pretty clear in Scripture.

Matthew 13:55 “Isn’t this the carpentars son?”

Mark 6:3 "Isn’t this the carpentar. Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?

Those are translations for the Greek word “tekton” which is more general and may also mean “stoneworker”.

 

[TomFromMD]

The Greek word is Τέκτων - Tekton. This is a craftsman, generally with wood, though the word can be used more loosely for other kinds of craftsmen.

 

[seagal]

I think it’s more likely the illustrator had only a vague idea how to depict a carpenter, let alone one from the first century.

 

[patrick457]

The Greek word is Τέκτων - Tekton. This is a craftsman, generally with wood, though the word can be used more loosely for other kinds of craftsmen.

Exactly. The word just means ‘artisan’ or ‘craftsman’, with no exact specification of what one specializes in. If you wanted to say ‘woodworker’, you’ll have to specify it: ‘a wood-working tektōn’.

We get the idea of Joseph and Jesus being woodworkers from an early belief that Jesus made plows and yokes, and it just kind of grew from there. (There’s a symbolic meaning in this: the yoke evokes the wood of the cross. The horizontal beam of the cross is sometimes called patibulum, which means ‘yoke’.)

Now while the idea of Jesus making yokes and other mundane implements is still plausible, the type of carpentry we see in some images - where Jesus and Joseph make large, high-quality furniture - is a bit unlikely, because high-quality wood was rare and were usually imported. In other words, there’s a very slim chance that imported decent lumber (the cedars of Lebanon, etc.) will end up in a small backwater rural village like Nazareth.

As oneofmany implies, at that part of the world you’d get more jobs and money working with stone - which were in abundance compared to wood. With stone, you could build houses or even make bowls or cups or jars. (Most Jews took the purity laws of the Old Testament seriously; unlike pottery or wooden utensils, bowls or cups made of stone are thought to be immune to ritual impurity, which is which they were in high demand, especially for the more pious folks.)

The only thing we know about St. Joseph and Jesus is that they were both artisans. But what exactly they worked on, we don’t know. It’s not like they would have worked only with wood or only with stone; maybe it was both. Maybe they built houses or made stone cups; maybe they made yokes or plows; maybe they also doubled as repairmen, fixing boats or some small furniture or some leaky roof.

In fact, many artisans in those days were not just artisans to the exclusion of other jobs, nor were many farmers just farmers and nothing else. Most people were not stuck to one single kind of job: a lot of working peasants would have had a ‘side job’ of sorts, because after all it helps bring food to the table. Farmers, for instance, also functioned as an occasional artisan or laborer (especially in villages). They farmed for food and they practiced some other trade on the side.

The Galilee was the most naturally fertile agricultural region in all of Palestine, and many people around Jesus would have been subsistence farmers. The grandsons of one of Jesus’ ‘brothers’, Jude, were farmers who owned a small plot of land; it’s not unlikely that many of Jesus’ other relatives were farmers too. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Joseph or Jesus doing farm work at some point in their lives in addition to their artisanry.

 

[patrick457]

My wife went shopping the other day and picked up a book about the story of Christmas, for our daughter. Our daughter is about eighteen months old and loves flipping through board books. And bringing them to us for us to read them. So, I was quickly presented with this book. And lo and behold, I learned something new! Saint Joseph was, apparently, a terrible carpenter. In the picture, anyway, he is busy building something vaguely basket shaped, under the text “they prepared for the coming of Baby Jesus.” And it looks like something that was built by a absent minded child…

Perhaps the illustrator simply had no idea that Saint Joseph was a carpenter by trade? Perhaps the cultural meme of incompetent husbands has finally made it’s way from TV ads to Saint Joseph? Perhaps Saint Joseph really was the world’s worst carpenter? Perhaps the illustrator had seen too many mangers and thought that Saint Joseph was responsible for building it?

We may never know.
Amusing none the less.

Merry Christmas!
-Tabone

Or the illustrator was just clumsy.

 

[christofirst]

Maybe the Home Depot was closed when they got to Bethlehem, and St. Joseph had to use whatever he could find to quickly cobble together the basket/basinet for Our Lord .

 

[Neofight]

St. Joseph. was a master carpenter, as indicated in scripture, and metaphorically.

It is fathers who build the foundation and framework for little boys to become men.

God the Father provided the example for the divine nature of Christ, and St. Joseph provided the example for the human nature of Jesus.

Whatever the professional, earthly vocation of St. Joseph is irrelevant. What is very relevant is the Joseph’s vocation as earthly father, which again, based on what we know about his “finished product” was a masterpiece.

Peace and all good!

 

[Bonnie]

Or the illustrator was just clumsy.

I’m voting for this. I’ve seen some pathetic illustrations in children’s books. The absolute worst was the one the children & I called the “googly-eyed Jesus Bible.” It was a children’s Bible with unfortunately silly illustrations.

 

[Anglewannabe]

This is a classic case of ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’

If I saw a picture of Joseph building a basket for the coming of Jesus, and the basket is not look absolutely perfect, my first thought would be ‘Joseph isn’t finished yet, the basket is in the beginning stages’

And by the end of the story, I would not look at the humble circumstances surrounding Jesus’s birth, I would look at ‘The savior has arrive, what perfection!’

Angie

 

[Mary_Estelle]

Well, you should have seen the workmanship of the carpenter that just built a porch railing for me. Yup, he should have been out splitting rocks someplace.

Even a good carpenter might have times when out of work and need to “fill in” to make ends meet. To me it is just not worth worrying about. P. S. I had to have the “carpenter” rip everything out because he never heard of a level, a measuring tape, snapping a line or a plump bob. Sheeeh!

 

[Mary_Estelle]

All this time I thought that Jesus was a fisherman…a fisherman of men…aka God. hmmm…is there a hole in my net somewhere??

 

[Trident_H]

My wife went shopping the other day and picked up a book about the story of Christmas, for our daughter. Our daughter is about eighteen months old and loves flipping through board books. And bringing them to us for us to read them. So, I was quickly presented with this book. And lo and behold, I learned something new! Saint Joseph was, apparently, a terrible carpenter. In the picture, anyway, he is busy building something vaguely basket shaped, under the text “they prepared for the coming of Baby Jesus.” And it looks like something that was built by a absent minded child…

Perhaps the illustrator simply had no idea that Saint Joseph was a carpenter by trade? Perhaps the cultural meme of incompetent husbands has finally made it’s way from TV ads to Saint Joseph? Perhaps Saint Joseph really was the world’s worst carpenter? Perhaps the illustrator had seen too many mangers and thought that Saint Joseph was responsible for building it?

We may never know.
Amusing none the less.

Merry Christmas!
-Tabone

Too funny. Thanks for that.

 

[Xantippe]

I think it’s more likely the illustrator had only a vague idea how to depict a carpenter, let alone one from the first century.

Right.

 

[EasterJoy]

All this time I thought that Jesus was a fisherman…a fisherman of men…aka God. hmmm…is there a hole in my net somewhere??

Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
(Mark 6:3)
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him*. (Matt. 4:18-20)

A carpenter who re-modeled standard fishermen into fishers of men…

I have seen an illustration of Our Lord, seated in the midst of a group of children, in which one of the shins beneath his robe had to have been about nine inches shorter than the other. The bend of his knee was that close to his foot. Some illustrators are more accomplished than others.

 

[Bonnie]

I have seen an illustration of Our Lord, seated in the midst of a group of children, in which one of the shins beneath his robe had to have been about nine inches shorter than the other. The bend of his knee was that close to his foot. Some illustrators are more accomplished than others.

I have an amateur copy of the Pieta with a similar problem.

I suspect editors choose the lowest bidding artist.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

My wife went shopping the other day and picked up a book about the story of Christmas, for our daughter. Our daughter is about eighteen months old and loves flipping through board books. And bringing them to us for us to read them. So, I was quickly presented with this book. And lo and behold, I learned something new! Saint Joseph was, apparently, a terrible carpenter. In the picture, anyway, he is busy building something vaguely basket shaped, under the text “they prepared for the coming of Baby Jesus.” And it looks like something that was built by a absent minded child…

Perhaps the illustrator simply had no idea that Saint Joseph was a carpenter by trade? Perhaps the cultural meme of incompetent husbands has finally made it’s way from TV ads to Saint Joseph? Perhaps Saint Joseph really was the world’s worst carpenter? Perhaps the illustrator had seen too many mangers and thought that Saint Joseph was responsible for building it?

We may never know.
Amusing none the less.

Merry Christmas!
-Tabone

The illustrator probably had no idea St. Joseph was a carpenter.

I recently saw a board book about the Birth of Jesus, and among the animals in the stable was a cute little pig. I highly doubt that the piggy would have been there, since they were considered unclean animals.

 

[Xantippe]

The illustrator probably had no idea St. Joseph was a carpenter.

I recently saw a board book about the Birth of Jesus, and among the animals in the stable was a cute little pig. I highly doubt that the piggy would have been there, since they were considered unclean animals.

Oops!