An artisan skilled in working with wood. A description of a carpenter’s tools and procedures is given in Isaiah’s account of the manufacture of an idol (Isa 44:13-17): a “line” for measuring, a pencil for marking, planes for shaping, and a compass for designing. The carpenter there described also plants, tends, and cuts down the trees with which he works. In most English translations of the Gospels, Jesus is reported to be a carpenter (Mark 6:3) or the son of one (Matt 13:55). The Greek word used in these passages simply means “builder” in a generic sense, leaving open the possibility that he and/or his father worked with stone or other materials.
