The Carpenter at Nazareth

S. Mark vi. 1–6

Jesus turned from Capernaum to visit once more the scenes where His early years had been spent. Nazareth was a very different place from that busy town on the lake which was astir with all the activity of a thriving trade. It was one of the most obscure of Galilean villages; like its neighbours, Nain and Endor, the abode of oil-pressers and husbandmen. It once must have had a Jewish name, but it found no place of record either in the Bible or the Talmud.

After the reception which our Lord had met with some nine months before, we are surprised that He should have revisited it, but His human love of home quickened forgiveness; and though the Nazarenes had been filled with wrath by His first sermon in their synagogue, and attempted His life, ample time had elapsed for different feelings to spring up. At all events it was worth while to give them another opportunity; and so He found Himself once more in the old home, lodging no doubt under the same roof with His mother and brethren Y and sisters.

On the Sabbath-day He joined the crowd of villageworshippers, and made His way to the synagogue, where for nearly twenty years He had been a constant attendant. Everything must have been perfectly familiar to Him: the emblem 2 over the entrance, the holy Lamp, the Ark with the Sacred Rolls, the reader’s desk, or preacher’s chair. What memories they revived of bygone years, — years of eager expectation when He must have longed for His work to begin! And now it was far advanced, far at least according to its destined measurement. What His thoughts were, none can tell, but we may be sure that when the Ruler asked Him to read the appointed Lessons, and address the congregation, His heart must have kindled with even more than wonted desire to tell the glad tidings that He had to bring.

It was the custom on the Sabbath-day for an interpreter 4 to stand by the reader and translate for the people the Hebrew they had forgotten during their exile in Babylon.5 But none such was needed that day. The language of the Old Testament and the vernacular Aramaic would be alike familiar to our Lord: 6 and so the Haphtarah would be read, and the explanation be given by the same lips. But the Preacher was again to be disappointed. It was almost a repetition of what had happened before. True, there was no outburst of violence, but they were filled with incredulity and amazement. There was no surrender of their old prejudices, no throwing of themselves at His feet in the simplicity of faith, no open confession or outpouring of regret that they could ever have doubted the truth of what they heard. Their hearts were hardened against conviction; and so they tried to divert their thoughts from the substance of His preaching by recalling the circumstances of His youth, when He had lived and moved among them, a common man like themselves.

They spoke to each other of His cottage home, His father, and His kinsfolk; and the recollection of the carpenter’s shop in which He had worked took such possession of their minds, that they had no power to understand the logic of facts and the tremendous change they had brought about.

It is one of the few places where the veil is removed from His early life. He was brought up to the trade of a village carpenter. He worked with Joseph in building and repairing boats for the lake, in making furniture for the synagogue, in cutting down poles for tents, and, according to an early testimony, in shaping ploughs and yokes for oxen. When at home, His bench would be placed, as is the custom now, in the public way; when abroad, He would find His occupation in such hamlets as Nain or Cana, or perhaps on the beach at Bethsaida and Capernaum. Such sparing notice by inspired historians teaches us to give no credence to the Apocryphal legends x of the wonders that He wrought both in play and at work. Had there been in His life at Nazareth even the least exhibition of superhuman capacities, it would have been on every one’s lips, in a village where everything was known and talked of; and instead of being amazed at His wisdom, when in later years He taught in their synagogue, the people would at once have regarded it as the fulfilment of His early promise.

No; the brief question, “Is not this the carpenter?” leaves no doubt upon the mind that no “mighty works” had been done by His hands before His ministry began. None can doubt that there were abundant proofs even then that He was no common Person: a perfect Boy, a perfect Youth, a perfect Man, perfect at each stage as He passed through it, but with no unveiling of that which was His from the beginning.

He in “Whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” Who was “the brightness of His Father’s glory, and the express image of His Person,” lived in such obscurity that His neighbours only remembered Him as an undistinguished member of Joseph’s household.

It is quite possible that His fellow-villagers did not intend the contempt such a question conveys to our ears. Perhaps they wished only to be sure of His identity. The Jews, we know, did not consider it mean to work at a trade. It was the duty of every one, from the priest to the peasant, to learn some craft, and S. Paul was not ashamed to labour with his hands for his daily bread.

But whatever their motive, the fact remains: they rejected His message, and evoked from His lips the oft-repeated complaint, “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” It is only a nobler dress for the commonest proverb, than which none is truer, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” He had come to bring them an abundant blessing, but His hand was stayed. S. Matthew tells us that “He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” S. Mark, as though bent on every occasion upon expressing His tender sympathy with suffering, points out that an exception was only made, to heal some that were sick.

Now from this short notice of our Lord’s earthly occupation during His preparation for His mission, we may gather some fresh proof that “His ways are not our ways.” It was a poor beginning, as man measures, for the greatest work, to spend so many years at a carpenter’s bench. For though there may have been nothing dishonourable in learning a trade, we can conceive of no weaker credentials for One Who claimed to regenerate the world, than that He had sat at no Rabbi’s feet in the schools of wisdom and knowledge, but had spent thirty years in the meanest cottage among an ignorant and unlettered population. And history tells how often His followers were reproached with His origin. When Julian in his persecution was waging war successfully against the Faith, it is said that one of his officers asked a Christian with scorn and contempt what his Master, the carpenter’s Son, was doing then. “Making a coffin,” was the meek reply of the injured saint. And soon the news was brought that the apostate Emperor was dead. Celsus, also another great adversary of the Christians, had insolently upbraided them for being followers of One Who had worked as a labouring man.

To those who read the lesson of those early years aright, a working life wears a far different aspect. Henceforward it is surrounded by a halo of dignity and honour; and it is no insignificant consequence that He should have made it impossible for ever that any man should be ashamed to work.

Note: For their actual relationship cf. pp. 70-74.

Note: The common emblem, judging from the remains which have been found, was the Seven-branched Candlestick, which was singularly appropriate for a place where instruction or illumination was one of the primary objects. For a variation from the above at Tell Hum cf. p. 26.

Note: For Lessons the Law was divided into fifty-four Parashahs, a word signifying sections, “separated off.” Cf. Pharisee, “separatist.” The Prophets were divided into Haphtarahs, from a verb “to dismiss,” because the congregation usually separated shortly after this part of the service. Cf. Acts xiii. 14, 15. After the Return from Captivity it was usual to read the Law only in the synagogues. This was stopped by Antiochus Epiphanes, but after the revolt of the Maccabees Simon restored it, and added the Prophets. Cf. S. Luke iv. 17. 4 He was called Methurgeman.

Note: After the Return the dialect they used in Palestine was that known as Aramaic. At the same time the Quadrate form of Hebrew letters was introduced, and the Scriptures were rewritten in this character by Ezra.

Note: The Old Testament Hebrew was only studied by Rabbis. We may be quite sure that our Lord would read the Scriptures in the original language, and not be satisfied with a version.

Note: The Gospel of the Infancy and others introduce Him as working wonders from His earliest years, e.g. to relieve Joseph, and correct his mistakes in carpentering.