medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I've resisted entering the fray, but before things get too far out of
focus, it should be noted that the Greek word involved is TEKTWN,
related to the verb TEKTONEIN, and according to the big
Liddell-Scott-Jones-Mackenzie Lexicon, the various ancient uses normally
indicate someone who works with wood, distinguished from someone who
works with metal (a "smith" = XALKEOS). What the former person does with
wood varies considerably, including building buildings and "joining"
wood pieces. In extended uses, the word can even apply to craftspersons
who work with bone or even who sculpt, but those occasions are rare.
In Matthew's narrative (13.55), perhaps adjusting the tradition found in
Mark (6.3) that identifies Jesus as the TEKTWN, the people of Nazareth
are amazed at Jesus "the son of the craftsman [TOU TEKTONOS]." Where the
compiler of this story got the information, whether semitic languages
(Aramaic or Hebrew) made neat distinctions about trades, etc., are
beyond my competence. The compiler of Luke avoids the problems (4.22). I
suspect that for "Matthew" and its early readers, the point was that
Jesus came from a working class background, without attempting to be
overly precise. What is interesting to me at least is how this seed grew
in "parabiblical" texts and in art -- things about which some people on
this list are well qualified to comment.
What, for example, did the Latin translator mean by calling Jesus'
father "faber" (so the Vulgate -- are there any old Latin variants
here?) -- or calling Jesus "faber" in Mark 6.3? When did the stories
about Joseph cutting a board too short (so Jesus lengthens it for him)
come into circulation, and what was he cutting the board for? Are there
further details in the text that circulated (in any other languages
besides Coptic and Arabic?) under the title "History of Joseph the
Carpenter," where Joseph is both priest and craftsman? How is Joseph
(and sons) depicted in art that shows him working?
Such a discussion of the history of interpretation of Joseph's "craft"
would be most welcome, and quite natural on this list.
Bob Kraft, UPenn
John Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> On Thursday, December 20, 2007, at 7:59 pm, George Hoelzeman wrote:
>
>> I think it all hinges on the technical term used to describe Joseph in
>> the Greek NT.
>
> I rather think that the discussion as it has proceeded so far hinges both on the plausible meanings of _tekton_ in a first-century Palestinian context and how the English-language words used to convey those meanings are construed.
>
>> While I cannot speak to the 1st C. classification of
>> professions (used
>> loosely in this context)
>
> A pity, as considerations of such classifications in contexts other than those of the immediate writer/reader community of the New Testament are unlikely to be persuasive in this instance.
>
> I do know that by the Middle Ages
>> professions/skilled trades, etc. were pretty clearly stratified and if
>> one used a specific term to
>> describe someone's trade, it pretty narrowly described that trade.
>
> Do you know this or do you merely believe it to be true? I know no such thing. I do know that there were trade organizations in antiquity called _collegia_. I have also read, in writings of people to whom I give some credit (e.g. Joseph P. Byrne, s.v. "Guilds", in Christopher Kleinhenz, ed., _Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia_ [Routledge, 2004], I, 476-79), that the evidence for the survival in Italy of these _collegia_ after late antiquity is both very thin and geographically quite limited and that guilds such as those of which you speak emerge in Europe only after the year 1000. Even if you use ca. 1000 as your starting date for the Middle Ages (some do), your assertion that _by_ the Middle Ages such stratification already obtained requires more than your sayso to make it credible.
>
>> Beyond that, I would point out that in modern circumstances, while a
>> carpenter might build cabinets, he almost never does professionally
>> and would not be
>> described as a cabinetmaker or jointer.
>
> And the probative value of that utterance is? If a person is described by a word that reputable scholars of the Greek language say in its principal meaning can be rendered by "carpenter", by "worker in wood", and by "cabinetmaker", what is there in modern denotative practices in English to preclude that more than one of these meanings may have resided conjointly in the term _teknon_ in NT Greek?
>
>> I grew up with carpenters and
>> come from a long line of people engaged in woodworking. Some built
>> houses for a
>> living, some did not. Most did other types of woodwork, but none did
>> more than one trade for a living. While it is risky to extrapolate
>> from modern
>> stratification to a 2000 year old situation, it does offer some
>> context for speculation, particularly when there is a long history of
>> consistency. Thus are the
>> principles of anthropology based (you can learn about past
>> civilizations/cultures based on the behaviours of modern socieities
>> which have similarities).
>
> You can _conjecture_ about the remote past on the basis of more recent similarities. How often you can actually learn something that is true through such a procedure alone is another matter.
>
> In this particular case, for the similarity you adduce to be persuasive, it must also be shown a) that the population of first-century Nazareth and its immediate environs was probably large enough to sustain both carpentry and other types of woodworking as separate trades and b) that such separation of the woodworking trades existed in contemporary or nearly contemporary Palestine outside of the major cities.
>
>> The Medieval guilds pretty strictly stratified the trades into their
>> various categories. While it is true that the panel painter may have
>> done jointery work, he
>> appears to have been more likely to farm out jointery work to those
>> skilled in those areas. Jointers, it seems, based on evidence from
>> both Italy and Upper
>> Germany, constructed everything from altars to icon panels, to chests,
>> etc. They, in turn, relied on a different profession to go out into
>> the forest and
>> harvest trees, etc.
>
> _Vide supra_ for the evidentiary problem with the early Middle Ages and thus for such a generalization as "the Medieval guilds" _tout court_.
>
>> Yes, it is true that it was not uncommon for forest encampments of
>> woodworkers to include a variety of professions, but each was farly
>> well delineated.
>> Even family names reflect these delineations. Zimmermann was a house
>> builder (literally "room-man) or carpenter in our thinking.
>> Hoelzemann was less
>> clearly defined as anyone who worked with wood, although its likely it
>> was primarily a jointer.
>
> What evidence is there to sustain a view that first-century Greek-speakers conceptualized these matters in the same way as considerably later German-speakers?
>
>> So, yes, there was some nuance, but a technical term like tekton would
>> - it seems - be unlikely applied to someone engaged in a general
>> woodworking
>> profession, or to someone who built homes.
>
> Gee, one of the English-language equivalents (perhaps _the_ first) for _tekton_ in its first meaning in the Liddell-Scott-Jones is "carpenter". The smaller _An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon_ based on an earlier edition of Liddell and Scott glosses _tekton_ in its first meaning as "any worker in wood, esp. a carpenter, joiner." Absent a showing that these standard scholarly lexica are mistaken here, it seems rather that _tekton_ _would_ be applied to someone engaged in a general woodworking trade, or to someone who built homes.
>
> Best again,
> John Dillon
>
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