Was Jesus a carpenter, or a builder? Was he a construction worker? Jesus’ father Joseph is commonly identified as being a “carpenter,” a word that implies that Jesus and his father worked with wood for a career. The term tektōn is found only twice in the New Testament, in a doubly-attested quote where Jesus is referred to as either “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3) or “the son of the carpenter” (Matthew 13:55). Further investigation, however, will show that tektōn is a generic word for “builder,” in the same sense that architektōn (= “architect”) means “chief builder” (1 Corinthians 3:10). Read more