Why was St. Joseph a carpenter?

[URA]

It seems odd; if Jesus was supposed to be such a common, ordinary person, why wouldn't his father have just been a common farmer? I've heard that St. Joseph had to have been a farmer, as well; the wood in the region was poor, and Jesus' parables are heavily agrarian.

So I've been pondering this for awhile, and I'd like to turn the question over to the strangers on the Internet: Why was St. Joseph a carpenter?

(And, in honor of the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker, here's a nice article about St. Joseph: Saint Joseph: A Man to Emulate)

May God bless us all!

 

[ripple the car]

I think, to tie him, in a way, to his foster Son. Wood.

 

[ChicanaRose]

Maybe it built stamina and character in him. It's a heavy labor job that would have built his physical strength to transport and protect Mary and Jesus.

 

[doctorwho29]

Because that was his career? I seriously doubt it was any deeper than that.

 

[prodromos]

He couldn't get into Dental School and Electricians weren't yet a thing (otherwise he would have been an Electrician for sure)

 

[Dave-W]

I've heard that St. Joseph had to have been a farmer, as well; the wood in the region was poor, and Jesus' parables are heavily agrarian.

Carpenters worked as much with stone as they did with wood.
And the parables were already in existence from the previous century. Our Lord added his own twists and interpretations to the already-familiar stories.

 

[Dave-W]

Electricians weren't yet a thing (otherwise he would have been an Electrician for sure)

That would have been shocking ....

 

[URA]

He couldn't get into Dental School and Electricians weren't yet a thing (otherwise he would have been an Electrician for sure)

St. Joseph the Sparky?

That is interesting to consider, though. What occupation would Joseph have had if he raised Jesus in a different time? Would modern St. Joseph be a factory worker or janitor (or electrician)? Something blue-collar, I suppose.

May God bless us all!

 

[RDKirk]

It seems odd; if Jesus was supposed to be such a common, ordinary person, why wouldn't his father have just been a common farmer? I've heard that St. Joseph had to have been a farmer, as well; the wood in the region was poor, and Jesus' parables are heavily agrarian.

So I've been pondering this for awhile, and I'd like to turn the question over to the strangers on the Internet: Why was St. Joseph a carpenter?

(And, in honor of the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker, here's a nice article about St. Joseph: Saint Joseph: A Man to Emulate)

May God bless us all!

The original premise is in error By that time, most "common" people did not own farms any longer. Most were day laborers and a smaller proportion were tradesmen and artisans. The farm homilies were long standing, still understood and popular, but farmland was mostly owned by the fairly wealthy.

There was, btw, also a tradition of even wealthy Jews being trained in a trade in order to partake in the Feast of the Tabernacles. That would be the reason Paul was a tentmaker.

 

[Albion]

It seems odd; if Jesus was supposed to be such a common, ordinary person, why wouldn't his father have just been a common farmer? I've heard that St. Joseph had to have been a farmer, as well; the wood in the region was poor, and Jesus' parables are heavily agrarian.

So I've been pondering this for awhile, and I'd like to turn the question over to the strangers on the Internet: Why was St. Joseph a carpenter?

(And, in honor of the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker, here's a nice article about St. Joseph: Saint Joseph: A Man to Emulate)

May God bless us all!

As Dave-W noted, our word carpenter may be misleading. Builder or worker might be closer to the fact, and the area in which Jesus grew up was known for that sort of thing.

 

[JackRT]

Joseph and Jesus were not necessarily carpenters. The Greek word used in scripture is "tecton" which means simply "a skilled workman". A carpenter is certainly a possibility but equally possible is a mason, a smith, a potter, a cartwright, etc. How does one become a tecton? Well, learning from a father or relative or neighbor is possible but there is another way. He could have been a peasant farmer who fell on hard times and lost his land. Most had no choice but to sell their labour by the day in the marketplace --- they had become an "expendable". Being an expendable condemned one to a short brutish existence supplemented by begging or theft. But some had picked up marketable skills and became a tecton.

 

[Resha Caner]

Why was St. Joseph a carpenter? That's what his high school guidance counselor recommended based on a skills test.

 

[FireDragon76]

It seems odd; if Jesus was supposed to be such a common, ordinary person, why wouldn't his father have just been a common farmer? I've heard that St. Joseph had to have been a farmer, as well; the wood in the region was poor, and Jesus' parables are heavily agrarian.

So I've been pondering this for awhile, and I'd like to turn the question over to the strangers on the Internet: Why was St. Joseph a carpenter?

(And, in honor of the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker, here's a nice article about St. Joseph: Saint Joseph: A Man to Emulate)

May God bless us all!

Carpenter is probably a misnomer. Joseph and Jesus were probably more like tinkerers or day-laborers.

 

[FireDragon76]

St. Joseph the Sparky?

That is interesting to consider, though. What occupation would Joseph have had if he raised Jesus in a different time? Would modern St. Joseph be a factory worker or janitor (or electrician)? Something blue-collar, I suppose.

May God bless us all!

A roofer or day-laborer, maybe even an illegal immigrant. I actually used that analogy at a Bible study to explain why people were outraged at the notion of Jesus being the Messiah (it wasn't because Judaism couldn't understand the Messiah as a divine figure necessarily). His profession was not prestigious and he came from the wrong part of town, so to speak.

 

[RDKirk]

Joseph and Jesus were not necessarily carpenters. The Greek word used in scripture is "tecton" which means simply "a skilled workman". A carpenter is certainly a possibility but equally possible is a mason, a smith, a potter, a cartwright, etc. How does one become a tecton? Well, learning from a father or relative or neighbor is possible but there is another way. He could have been a peasant farmer who fell on hard times and lost his land. Most had no choice but to sell their labour by the day in the marketplace --- they had become an "expendable". Being an expendable condemned one to a short brutish existence supplemented by begging or theft. But some had picked up marketable skills and became a tecton.

I rather suspect Joseph was a tradesman of some kind. He had enough money to take his wife down to Bethlehem and spend a week or two down there. Then he had enough money for them to flee to Egypt.

 

[doctorwho29]

St. Joseph the Sparky?

That is interesting to consider, though. What occupation would Joseph have had if he raised Jesus in a different time? Would modern St. Joseph be a factory worker or janitor (or electrician)? Something blue-collar, I suppose.

May God bless us all!

I'm always interested in setting updates and these are interesting thoughts for modern Joseph. I don't know about janitor but possibly. I like something in construction like in the real story