It is funny what you notice when you read Scripture. One thing that caught my eye recently is the connection of two assumptions in Scripture. Firstly, that Jesus was a carpenter. This is based on the vocation of his stepfather Joseph who was a carpenter as we are told in Mk 6:3; Mt 13:55. The second strand is the saying, 'foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head' (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58). I suddenly thought today, 'hey; if Jesus was a carpenter, why didn't he make himself a home base'. I then looked up carpentry and found this from The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Vol 2, 2085): 'The carpenter worked in timber, setting up the framework of houses, the roofing, windows, and doors. Often small structures were erected by the householder, but temples and palaces required specialized artisans where carpenters worked alongside stonemasons (2 Kgs 12:11; 22:6; 1 Chr 14:1; 22:15; 2 Chr 24:12; 34:11; Ezr 3:7). Some o...
The blog of Mark Keown, New Testament lecturer at Laidlaw College, Auckland, New Zealand. It involves comments on theology, life, sport and whatever comes into Mark's random mind.