In the fictional mishmash of the gospel story, one supposedly biographical detail pointed to by bibliolaters and historicizers is the designation of Jesus and his stepfather Joseph as "carpenters." This purported biographical detail is mentioned only twice, briefly at Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, the former in which Jesus is named as the carpenter's son, and the latter in which he himself is designated a carpenter. Here, assert proponents, appears evidence that there was a historical figure who was either the son of God or a Jewish rabbi evemeristically blown up into a divine figure.
In the quest to create a Jesus biography, this purported "historical" detail of carpenter is rarely raised; instead, rabbinical status is conferred upon Jesus through the belief in the gospel tale that Christ was a great sage who stunned the Jewish elders and priests at a young age with his precocious wisdom. (Luke 2:39-52) Why such a child would then be allowed to grow up to be a simple carpenter seems to make little sense as biography but is comprehensible if understood mythologically.
Is this "carpenter" designation truly a "biographical detail?" Or is it yet another part of the mythmaking process that cobbled together various popular motifs from around the known world in order to create the "King of kings" and "God of gods?" The evidence points to the latter situation to be the case.
Tekton as 'craftsman'
The Greek word used to describe Jesus and Joseph as a "carpenter" in the New Testament is τέκτων or tekton (Strong's G5045), which is defined as:
1) a worker in wood, a carpenter, joiner, builder
a) a ship's carpenter or builder
2) any craftsman, or workman
a) the art of poetry, maker of songs
3) a planner, contriver, plotter
a) an author
As we can see, the designation in English of this word as "carpenter" is arbitrary, and there is little reason to suspect that it is more accurate than these other renderings. Jesus, therefore, could have been any sort of craftsman, including one who works with stone, making of him a mason. In this same regard, the word tekton in modern Greek oddly means "Freemason."
This same word tekton also appears some two dozen times in the Greek Old Testament or Septuagint, as at 1 Samuel 13:19. In the Hebrew of that verse, the word translated as tekton is חרש or charash (H2796), used 33 times in the Old Testament and defined as "craftsman, artisan, engraver, graver, artificer; graver, artificer..." It 
appears that Christ was made to be a tekton in order to represent the "carpenter" or "craftsman" guild, as the spiritual figurehead, a common occurrence with many other occupations, including smithcraft, fishing, sailing, masonry and funerary services.
The notion of craftsmen guilds, the head of which would be a "carpenter god," can be seen in 1 Chronicles (4:14), which speaks of the residents of the Valley of Charashim, the plural of charash or "craftsmen," "artisans," etc. Tekton is also translated as "carpenter," as at 2 Samuel 5:11. Here the Greek is τέκτονας ξύλων or "craftsmen of wood," followed by τέκτονας λίθων or "craftsmen of stone," translated as "masons."
The role of carpenters, builders and masons was an important one in antiquity, as it was they who built the Temple of the Lord (2 Kings 22:6). At Isaiah 40:19-20, we read about the tekton who casts gold for an idol and sets up a graven image; likewise it is a tekton who creates the “calf of Samaria” (Hosea 8:6).
The oddest passage, perhaps, in which the word tekton is used is Zechariah 1:20: "And the LORD showed me four tektons," here translated variously as "carpenters" (KJV), "craftsmen" (NIV), "smiths" (RSV) or "blacksmiths" (NLT). This vision occurred after "the word of the Lord" "came unto" Zechariah, to whom it is explained that the four tektons are the "horns which scattered Judah, so that no man raised his head; and these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it." As we can see, the word tekton is used in the Bible allegorically and mythologically as well, an important precedent to note.
God as demiurge
In this regard, there exists another intriguing passage at Hebrews 11:10, which states:
ἐξεδέχετο γὰρ τὴν τοὺς θεμελίους ἔχουσαν πόλιν ἡς τεχνίτης καὶ δημιουργὸς ὁ θεός.
The RSV renders this scripture:
"For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Of interest to us are the word τεχνίτης or technitēs, which, like tekton, means "artificer" or "craftsman," and the phrase δημιουργὸς ὁ θεός or "demiurge [is] [the] God." In other words, the builder or demiurge of the holy city (sought by Abraham) is God. Here God is the demiurge. Interestingly, δημιουργός or demiurge (Strong's G1217) is defined as "workman for the public; author of any work, an artisan, framer, builder," essentially the same as tekton. Demiurge also means "creator." This term δημιουργός or demiurge is used dozens of times in pre-Christian literature, especially in Plato (Cratylus, Symposium, Protagoras, Gorgias, Republic, Timaeus, etc.).
The craftsman god
As we can see from these examples, the carpenter, artisan, mason or craftsman god or aspect of God in antiquity was important and prevalent. Craftsman-god examples can be found in numerous other cultures, such as the Indian, with the god Vishvakarma, the Divine Architect of the Universe, also known as the "Carpenter of the gods":
Viśvákarma (Sanskrit: विश्वकर्मा viśvá-karman "all-accomplishing; all-creator" is the Hindu presiding deity of all craftsmen and architects. He is believed by Hindus to be the "Principal Universal Architect", the architect who fabricated and designed the divine architecture of the Universe, the Lord of Creation....
The Mahabharata describes him as "The Lord of the Arts, Executor of a thousand Handicrafts, the Carpenter of the Gods, the most eminent of Artisans, the Fashioner of all ornaments ... and a great and immortal God..."
In the Indian text the Rig Veda, dating to 3,000 years ago by conservative estimates, the "divine craftsman" Tvashtr forges weapons, like his later Greco-Roman counterpart Hephaistos-Vulcan. Such artisan deities are thus known from remote antiquity, as can be found in the Ugaritic texts as well, as concerns the "craftsman god" Kothar wa-Hasis. Concerning Kothar, in The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Dr. Mark S. Smith (171) comments:
The craftsman-god's names mean literally "Skilled and Wise" or a little less literally..., "Wise Craftsman."
Kothar's Mesopotamian craftsman counterpart is Ea, also called "wise."
There are many other such examples of craftsman, artisan and carpenter gods in antiquity, as I discuss further in my book Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled. Suffice it to say that we cannot hang a "historical" Jesus on this briefly mentioned and patently mythical detail from the gospels. On the contrary, this "biographical detail" adds to our logical conclusion that the "Jesus Christ" of the New Testament is a fictional composite of characters, based significantly on archetypical divine predecessors such as those explored here.
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|2012-06-22 08:12:20 Robert Tulip - Architect of the UniverseHi Acharya
Yet another intriguing and informative nugget about the mythical identity of Jesus Christ. Thank you. Masons call God the Architect of the Universe, and this is the sense in which Jesus should be considered as tekton or builder.
Hebrews 3:3-4 says "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything." In case you missed it, Moses is likened to the house of which Jesus is the builder. This is quite bizarre if we think of Jesus as a historical carpenter, but as builder of the universe, the equal of God, he is 'worthy of greater honor than Moses' as 'builder of everything'. The esteem given to Jesus is not as a man, but as builder of the house of the world.
Revelation and Hebrews use holy city or heavenly Jerusalem as allegory for the visible stars of the night sky, and especially for the zodiac. So God (who is equated with Jesus) designs and builds the "city with foundations" (Heb 11:10) where live "descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky", and Revelation 21 tells us these foundations of the holy city are the same twelve jewels that Judaism saw as holy symbols for the twelve signs of the zodiac. This activity of Christ of 'building' a symbolic heavenly Jerusalem in the stars is a form of ideal construction, making the natural shape of the visible universe meaningful for human culture. The mythical meaning found in the Gospel story of Jesus as carpenter is purely astrotheological.
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|2012-09-29 20:37:22 Anonymous
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|2012-11-30 22:24:21 Anonymous - Fact check please?Has anyone actually done a fact check / source check on the writer? Everything she writes is fiction with no real facts.
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|2012-12-01 01:16:06 Acharya SIf you are talking about me, perhaps you should fact check yourself, as what you have stated about my work is utterly FALSE. Did you even read the original post before you wrote such libelous drivel?
Almost everything I write - included this very post itself - is thoroughly backed up by primary sources and the work of credentialed authorities.
Does not your Bible tell you that bearing false witness breaks one of the 10 commandments?
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|2013-03-28 05:21:59 CharlieI suggest that some people may have a problem with you assuming everything you believe or say is true which is what you do. Some people deny the historical existence of Jesus, and reject all the written evidence to prove it. I could deny the existence of you with that approach. Asking for more evendince after your skreed is not too much to ask.
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|2013-03-28 07:09:00 Acharya SAnd your remarks are fallacious as well. It is clear that you do not know my work in the least. I am constantly backing up everything I claim, with serious scholarship. Did you even read the article here before making calumnious remarks?
No, you did not. Please actually study the work before making falsehoods about me and it.
Again, as I stated above, this entire post is FULL of the evidence you are requesting, as is the rest of my work.
Saying, "Everything she writes is fiction with no real facts" is simply an asinine and completely false lie, and you are agreeing with such ridiculous mendacity?
Once more, I ask, does religious fanaticism create such utter dishonesty?
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|2013-04-03 03:06:12 Don Brown - The Secret of the UniverseI think I came up with all the answers.
Give this book a shot.
http://www.amazon.com/Greater-Reality-Evolution-Emotion/dp/1466347783/ ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364958308&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Greater+ Reality%3A+and+the+Evolution+of+Emotion
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|2013-04-22 15:17:06 Anonymous - TektonThere is a good mp3 at www.thejesusdiscovery.com that looks at Joseph the tekton
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|2013-04-28 17:37:04 Anonymousreading this made me see and understand how someone who once BELIEVED actually lost that which he once professed...so sad indeed!!
i liken this to the image of a blind leading the blind...
Without God's Spirit opening our eyes we will never know Christ and Him crucified..He will remain a myth..
u can say and write and research all u want and call it superior scholarship..but the Bible calls it simply: vanity!!
i wonder what good this will accomplish in the end??
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|2013-04-28 13:27:51 Acharya SThank you, but I question whether or not you actually did read the original post, as your comments amount not to an intelligent or scientific observation but to little more than ad hom personal attacks and insults.
As such, such disparagement and abuse will be ignored, as we continue to investigate scientifically the factual origins of religious ideas, rather than engaging in simple-minded, religiously fanatical hate speech.
The facts are as stated above, and no amount of derogation and calumny will change them. The carpenter god motif is a mythical attribute added to the Christ myth that indicates his non-historicity, allegorical and mythical nature.
The good this scientific study will accomplish in the long run is to expose the truth, which in turn helps unite the world's peoples, rather than dividing them along the lines of religious fanaticism. Such divisiveness and bigotry allow for others to go to stranger's blogs and post religious calumny against their persons. Getting rid of that religiously fanatical human hatred and sociopathy will go a long way to the betterment of the world.
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|2013-04-28 18:33:03 Alex StanfordI must say I find it very amusing to see Xians arguing from the bible against scholarship that calls the bible into question. Their logical structure (if they can be said to have one) is that your work cannot disprove the bible because the bible says so. I wonder how far in life that type of invincible ignorance/circular reasoning would get them if they applied it to more mundane matters.
With all the great work that is coming out now and in the near future the desperation and mindlessness of theists will become ever more obvious and comical. For thousands of years man's intellect was held hostage by faith. The time is quickly coming where the bonds will be break and mankind will finally know freedom.
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|2013-05-02 04:03:21 Acharya SSo, the impression that Jesus was a "historical" carpenter is erroneous, and we can throw out that purported biographical detail.
In reality, the "Jesus Christ" of the New Testament is a fictional compilation of characters, including evidently the popular carpenter/craftsman god.
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|2013-05-03 06:43:41 Acharya SYes, certainly, as he is based on the gospel story, obviously, several centuries after the purported facts. Moreover, the Koran makes the mistake of conflating the New Testament Jesus with the Old Testament figure of Joshua, whose name is "Jesus" throughout the Greek OT/Septuagint.
The Koran is merely repeating biblical and noncanonical traditions, not reflecting divine knowledge from the omniscient God.
Thanks- Johnny Lee