Quote:
|
Originally Posted by jorgelito
I know he and his dad were carpenters. But were carpenters well off in his time?
|
AFAIK, the notion that he was a carpenter is only mentioned once in the New Testament. It's used as an expression of surprise from people watching him preach, but that's never explicitly stated anywhere. In fact, the only mentions of his profession are that of a teacher...a rabbi.
we also know that the early church had all sorts of wealthy patrons...my suggestion earlier wasn't pure conjecture. The apostles always gave alms to the poor, for example. Wasn't Judas the keeper of the purse
The ministry had money, that's not disputed, although they kept everything in common (oops, not to anger anyone by suggesting the early followers of "The Way" were communists or anything, LOL).
EDIT: you might this analyses intereesting:
Quote:
Quote:
|
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy. The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars…he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand…a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?" (Isaiah 44:9-20)
|
When Mark told us the people of Jesus' hometown took offense at him and dishonored him, he may never intended the word "carpenter" (Greek, tekton) be a description of his trade, but as a metaphoric description of one who is misguided and deluded, who knows and understands nothing, and is to be shamed, like Isaiah's carpenter. This is powerful irony, almost certainly deliberate on Mark’s part. Here was the son of God--the man Mark had reach out to those who had eyes to see and ears (Mark 8:18, 25)--being accused by those who knew him best of being like the one who worships false gods and who has not eyes to see.
|
http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/The_Carpenter.htm