The first thing you need to know is that the word the New Testament translates as “carpenter” didn’t actually mean “carpenter” as we understand the word today. In Mark 6:3, we’re told that Jesus was a tektwn (pronounced tech-tone — perhaps the original of today’s slang word “techie”) .

A tektwn was someone who could do a little of everything — carpentry, yes, but also architecture, boat-building, and cabinetmaking. A tektwn cut down trees and squared up the logs so they could be used as beams in buildings; did paneling, cladding (bonding materials together), and carving; made doors and door frames, windows, and locks, and such furniture as stools, tables, and chests; made yokes, plows, and shovels; he even occasionally built bridges. Think of the tektwn as sort of a first-century Bob Vila, or super-super handyman.

Another thing to know: this was a respected trade. As you may already know, every Jewish man had a trade — for example, worker on the land, shepherd, potter, goldsmith. Several of the disciples were fishermen; Paul was a tentmaker, or in other words, a leather worker. The trade came first, and other occupations second, so the man always had something to fall back on if the market for, say, miracle workers (healers, psychologists), prophets (social critics), or scribes (religious lawyers) began to dry up.

A good tektwn was a leader of the community. Tektwns s were esteemed highly and considered clever. People said things like, “Is there a tektwn here or a son of a tektwn who can answer this question?” Jesus’s family seems to have been very disappointed that he gave up this high-status position to become a healer (psychotherapist) and teacher. Rabbi Shammai, who founded an important school of Jewish philosophy, was a tektwn.

Now, remember, in English, the prefix “arch-” means “main, chief, principal.” An archvillain is the main bad guy. Archangels, archbishops, and archdukes all outrank angels, bishops, and dukes. An archetype is a perfect example of whatever the type is. An tektwn is a super-tektwn, a “master builder” —the English equivalent is “architect.”

In 1 Corinthians 3:10, Paul says, “According to the grace of Godde given to me, like a skilled master builder [sofos architektwn] I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it.”

According to Word Meanings in the New Testament, “The Greek architektwn was not a designer of plans on paper; he was like the old cathedral builders, the master-mason, developing his ideas in the material. . . . The master builder is not only he who draws the plan of the building — in this sense the title would revert to God — but also the man who directs its execution” (p. 220).

Many scholars have written about the popularity of Lady Wisdom (Hebrew Hokmah, Greek Sophia) in the period 300 BCE - 100 CE. The scholar Claudia Camp has shown that Lady Wisdom was so popular that Israel almost fell into ditheism, the worship of two gods. A good bit has been written about how the people of the first century viewed Jesus as the human incarnation of Lady Wisdom — see, for example, Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Some scholars identify Lady Wisdom with the Holy Spirit, and there’s a lot of evidence that many in the first century agreed with them. (Gospel of Philip: “Some said, ‘Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.’ They are in error! They do not know what they are saying! When did a woman ever conceive by a woman?”)

In Proverbs 8, Lady Wisdom says, “YHWH created me at the beginning of God’s work, the first of God’s acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. . . . When Godde established the heavens, I was there. . . . When Godde marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Godde, like a master worker, and I was daily God’s delight.” Notice how similar this is to the hymn in John 1:1-11. (The main difference is, the Greek Logos, or Word, is masculine, so the pronouns are “he” and “him.”)

In everything I’ve read, the Greek of the Septuagint in Proverbs 8:30 was translated either “master worker” (master joiner would probably be a better translation — the kind of extra-skilled carpenter who does interior work) or “craftsman,” but sometimes the word is translated “darling and delight” (e.g., Revised English Bible). Whoa, I said to myself; I’d better look it up.

In the Septuagint, the word is armozousa. This is a participle of the verb armozw, which meant, to fit together or do joiner’s work; marriageable; well-ordered or harmonious; or, in the participle form, fitting or suitable. In other words, in Proverbs 8:30, Lady Wisdom may be being portrayed as saying that she is a fitting partner for Godde, or in Hebrew an ezer kenegdo. Godde split the original human created in God’s image into the man and the woman because the earth creature, ha’adam, needed an ezer kenegdo. Usually in the Hebrew scriptures, Godde is humanity’s ezer kenegdo.

In other words, it’s possible that Jesus was called a tektwn in the New Testament because his followers believed that he was the human incarnation of Lady Wisdom, the master worker who helped Godde with the architecture of the world. Isn’t that cool?