Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Joseph was an architect?

From UnBeige today:

Architects might soon have some new bragging rights, with the release of a new book claiming that Jesus' father Joseph wasn't a carpenter at all, but was likely an architect. The Telegraph reports on the book, The Jesus Discovery, by the British writer Dr. Adam Bradford, who analyzed "the original Greek and Hebrew scriptures, as well as using human psychology to analyze the behavior towards Jesus as depicted in the Bible" and came to the conclusion that it would have been impossible for the forebearer of Christianity to have been able to travel and disseminate his thoughts as freely as he had without being the son of someone with some stature in the community. Bradford also says this explains that Joseph's career also seeped into his son's speeches as well:


...Dr Bradford re-examined Joseph's position as a carpenter. Again, he concluded there had been a mistranslation and that the Greek word 'tekton' -- which describes Joseph's work -- more accurately means master builder or architect.

Dr Bradford claims this would explain why Jesus, who would have been brought up in his father's trade, made so many references to building in his teachings.

Crucially, Dr Bradford says that it is Joseph's position as an architect that would have first Christ brought him into contact with the Temple authorities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Might explain why Jesus was never dismissed by the authorities as uneducated or side-lined as irrelevant. I checked the site and there is an mp3 link to a lecture on this at www.templehouse-publishing.com
Slightly different take to the traditional chair maker line...