Was Jesus a Carpenter

At a Promise Keepers (Des Moines 2006) the organizers ran a film clip. In the film I heard it argued that Jesus did not grow up as a carpenter. The assertion is that he was not a carpenter, but was trained from a young age as a Rabbi. They asserted that someone who was called "Rabbi" and who taught in the manner as Jesus did, had to be a Rabbi. Promising boys were sent to Rabbinic school at a young age. Therefore, Jesus was trained as a Rabbi and could not be a carpenter. It is a quaint concept, we are told, to think a simple carpenter confounded the spiritual leaders of the age, but it simply wasn't so. A rabbi confounded other rabbis.

I haven't studied the Jewish custom of someone being addressed as Rabbi. I don't know if it can be a term like how we use "Pastor" today to refer to seminary graduates and self-taught teachers. However, I do think two passages contradict the theory that Jesus was a "trained" rabbi and not a carpenter.

Mark 6:2-3

And on the Sabbbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did ths man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such might works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?

Notice that menial labor is not being denigrated, but rather the people of the audience were saying that they know Jesus. He was not trained as a Rabbi. We know him. He was a carpenter. He is not special. Why should we pay attention to him?

If he went to rabbinical school the audience would know where he has gotten his wisdom. If he was trained by a great Rabbi, they would have treated him with more respect.

John 7:14=15 (ESV)

14About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?

Again, people who knew the Rabbinical schools knew that Jesus did not go to Rabbinical schools. He did not have formal training. I don't know how much clearer scripture can get on this issue.

So in conclusion, what do we make of this? The teaching that Jesus was not a carpenter, but a Rabbi seems to be prevalent among the emergant churches. However, I would believe writers who lived with Jesus before I would believe a strange little guy on a video telling me he researched Jewish culture for years and assuring that knows what he is talking about.

Post script: Nooma produced the Video and Rob Bell was teaching the false doctrine in the video.

In His Name.