Tekton means an artist and craftsman, which generally means a builder of many things; an
artisan ! Traditionally however, the word has been interpreted and translated simply to 'carpenter' though it would more likely include (what we think of today as) a master builder. Architects were known as an
Architekton , and affectionately, a
teknon and
teknion are (in biblical parlance) new disciples, but these are sometimes confused with Tekton for their similar spelling.
Carpenters and woodworking craftsmen in general, were more respected in the past (i.e. lawyers & politicians were not); the
Tekton was, after all, the maker of so many more things than just housing, buildings, cabinetry, furniture, tools, carts and wheels, boats, oars and masts, plows, yokes (farming implements), and so on. These skills were surely in high demand. This was also about honoring the
Labor curse; why YHVH did not come onto Earth as royalty.
Yeshua spent His early years as an apprentice shop carpenter, which was much the same then as it is today. As a carpenter myself, I had the time (3 decades) to achieve the Master Carpenter stage: This implies the ability to do at a master level, many facets of works, under the term carpentry. I began as a teen in the seventies, building water-bed frames, headboards, speaker boxes, stash boxes, coffee tables, stereo cabinets, and other such smaller wood-works.
At 18, I too became a
wage slave (yes, a
Mammon servant), building mostly homes, as well as smaller office buildings, veterinary clinics, and so forth. This meant that I traveled to where the structures were built and applied my trades there, on site, with tools that could be carried there. But I also had a home wood-shop, where I kept my cabinet building tools, jigs, templates, and the large slab tables used to set-up jigs upon. In the past, wood-shops were used (likewise) to make furniture, as well as wagon wheels, instruments, and other wood products that could not be exposed to weather.
Messiah Yeshua: The Early Years!
Yeshua was well-known in His
Village of Nazareth as a carpenter (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3); the stepson of the local carpentry shop owner, and so they likely never traveled far, but only to do handyman (type) work locally. Tools back then were heavy and expensive; they would have to be hauled in carts pushed by hand, or if you were well-to-do, pulled by animal-power (horses, donkeys, camels, oxen, etc.). It was not logical to travel far from home to do such work, as such workers were everywhere in those days anyway.
Yeshua spent His entire life in the region of
Galilee , and so the postulated
unknown years (silent years, lost years, or missing years of Jesus) are attempts to link Him with other acts He had nothing to do with. These postulates (most likely sedentary people) never labored with their hands; they do not know that at the end of the labor day, all you want to do is bathe, eat and sleep! Even so, we who are His disciples, are daily driven to be like Him in every way possible (Matt 10:24-26):
the cost of discipleship indeed.
My Master, just like my brother and fellow disciple, Saul of Tarsus who went from being a Pharisee to tent-maker, took on a trade because such trades can be employed anywhere there are people. Most of the world did not need the services of a Pharisee, but tents we could surely use and need. The religious professionals, then and today, were parasites or hands-out takers of mammon, generated by the sweat-of-the-brow labors of another. Adonai our Elohim expects us all to
Labor for our own such needs.
An apprenticeship typically took a decade (back then, between the ages of 16-26 or so), and for Yeshua, He was also learning theology, as well as being a typical teenager, student, and son of a sizable family. Since travel back then was dangerous for anyone, only when absolutely necessary, did women and children travel about: Even an older boy would be vulnerable. It was always safer to travel in groups, which was common then, and partly why He collected a dozen men to travel with, when He began His earthly traveling ministry. And the region was rough terrain, slow going, and humans must stay near fresh water sources.
Son of Reparation!
Remember also that there was no treated lumber back then, and so dry rot and deterioration was a common threat to exposed lumber, and thus, is was necessary to regularly replace damaged wood parts everywhere: roof rafters, shingles, doors, window-frames, floorboards, wheels, carts, hand tools, and so on. Steel works were expensive due to the raw materials, and harder to work with, but wood was more abundant (and sustainable) and thus easily reshaped; hence, most everything was made with it (no plastics back then).
Carpenter shops would make all kinds of daily use things, such as bowls and other kitchen utensils, food storage containers, and so on. Also, hand tools such as shovel and hammer handles; anything where steel would be married to wood. Then there are household furnishings, cabinets, picture frames, and I think you get the idea here. Even after a house was built, there was much more to make. Yes, even the horizontal cross beam and other paraphernalia of Roman crucifixion were reusable; likely created in a carpenter shop: Ponder that one!
A Tekton can also be an artisan who can also produce artwork and crafts; the skills of a Tekton could also include writing or drafting; many things were covered under the art of communication. Language was once primarily symbols rather than letters. Imagery, idols, talismans, and other means of communication were more prominent in ancient times than they are in modern times; we today use primarily the written and spoken word as communication, and film rather than canvas or wood.
I imagine Messiah Yeshua knew how to make tents as well, since it is a combination of structure (the frame) and the skin or fabric as cover. Of course, people did not begin to specialize until the modern era, when we got too busy with way too many things, and to the point that we could not fathom knowing everything about any one thing: Many had to become specialists. But it is still possible to master more than one thing. 1st Century Galilean life was very simple compared to today's money-centered consumerist cultures.
In addition to His labor talents, Yeshua was also interested in (and learned) in Jewish Theology; this we know because even as a boy He spent time in Jewish temples (Luke 2:42-47). It is presumed, based upon how and what He taught, and how much He knew about the
Pharisees , that He likely studied under the Pharisees, as well as the Essenes, though His ultimate theological core would come from the Indwelling Holy Spirit, following His Spiritual baptism or Spirit bath (Matt 3:13-17).
The
Essenes did not exactly disappear; the ancient Essenes simply abandoned the boxes; the religion or sect brands and labels and titles, which simpleminded humans must assign to 'those others!' Instead, many of the ancient Essenes became the unlabeled and Heaven-destined chosen ones; the Koinonia; The Elect of YHVH; indeed, the essence of what was Essene, but without the organized religion components. Modern day people who claim the word 'Essene' are (unfortunately) not the living disciples of Messiah Yeshua: We Messianic disciples have no human leaders!
Calvary's Cross: Death Knell Of Organized Religion!
As disciples of Messiah Yeshua of every generation, we do not merely add a culturally popular religion to our lives and otherwise secular lifestyles; rather, and like our Master, we abandon those very lives and lifestyles, and all their labels, and instead, expose the sin of religion: We do not remain the drones of our
Enculturation ; instead, we quickly become disenculturated.
Organized religions all require a human leader; a hierarchy; a followship looking up to leadership. The Heaven-destined disciples of Messiah Yeshua look only unto our One and only Master, who is no longer among us, but now abides within us. We become from the inside out, what religions once tried but failed miserably to provide from the outside in. White Western Evangelical churches are assuredly whitewashed tombs (
Matt 23 ).
All human religions, without exception, are mere
sociocultural productions of humans, with no (repeat, zero) connection to the Creator of all, YHVH. In fact the life of Messiah Yeshua -- and His confrontations with the religionists who functioned in concert with their bedfellows, the federal government and the attorney class and their militant cronies -- was no accident, but was (in and of itself) a message to all future disciples of Messiah Yeshua. Indeed, that was (in large part) why a Personal visit was necessary.
Every individual person of any culture or ethnicity, time or place, who surrenders unconditionally and completely unto the supreme and eternal Lordship of Messiah Yeshua, and dies to this life; dies to their pride-ego-emotion as the core of their heart and mentality; dies to all earthly dreams and desires; who steps out of the proverbial boat and onto the water; who sells all, sells out, and follows Him for real: These individuals subsequently become an utterly new creation (i.e. born again). But
the World (of the worldly) are drawn to the rich, the beautiful, the powerful, the socioculturally successful; conversely, the disciples of Messiah Yeshua are drawn to the opposite of all of that!
These unique individuals are the (infinitesimal & inconspicuous) Elect of YHVH; the disciples of Messiah Yeshua (in every generation). No other titles or labels or brands or sects, but rather, life-eternal lived out today (
John Seventeen ). We disciples of Messiah Yeshua, are His living ambassadors (2Co 5:17-21); we stand in His stead; we are His salt and light in this world (Matt 5:13-16), until that glorious triumphant return of The King, who is within us disciples, even now, but must return in the flesh, as the only righteous Judge of humankind, to wrap-up this Earth-human experiment.
We, as the Elect of YHVH; the living Messianic disciples; we are not little gods or Christ-replicators, as it is touted by many from among the (Catholic; Orthodox; Protestant) COP Cultist's; the westernized end-time productions, popularized openly by Satans mammon-centered, economic, dollar-financed media empires. We recognize that we are the easily replaceable servants of a Master, and mere subjects of The King. But, we are assuredly the commanded salt and light, as fellow cross-bearers (Luke 14:26-30,31-35; Gal 2:20).
But Why There? Why Then? Why Them?
Messiah Yeshua was/is YHVH-in-the-flesh; the Holy Spirit generally, is simply the Spirit of YHVH, Adonai our Elohim, who manifests in the incorporeal realm, and here on Earth, today in the corporeal, only in and through His living disciples, who are in direct contact with the corporeal world. And then there is the Holy Spirit in the world; this is inescapable because the Holy Spirit occupies every square inch of the sum of the entire universe for every second of time, and even outside of (or beyond) time. Who, where, why and when, YHVH decided to take on human form (flesh), was not random; there is a massive and vital message in this paradigm; well, for those with Spiritual eyes & ears anyway.
My Master, Messiah Yeshua, taught in their Jewish synagogues (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 10:17-18; 12:9; 13:54-58; 23:33-35); not in His churches, or our synagogues, but always theirs. Why theirs? Because the Creator of all, came onto Earth, in Person, to perform several steps to move us fearful primal carnal territorial primates, from our animal self, and give us the supreme opportunity to utterly transcend our natural self.
The very purpose of (and reason for) the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, was/is to empower us to die with Him (Gal 2:20), so that we can be reborn as, or transformed into, something and someone, so totally different than what we had become before Him, that the word
metamorphosis has to be employed here, for an absence of a better English word. We can now die of self because there is something much richer to take its place: Living Water, Bread of Life!
Spiritual Metamorphosis: The Final Transformation! Enculturation , and filter the rest of corporeality, and spacetime, from there.
The common life of Messiah Yeshua was not random; He was establishing a precedent; setting a living physical example of what Adonai our Elohim had in mind, for those that YHVH would resurrect into everlasting physical bodies, and used throughout the cosmos, and spacetime, on (and off) planets. Earth religions market a magic potion of eternal bliss via verbal confession; a non-stop never ending worship service, praising an ego-starved god. But that is not truth; indeed, that is Satans counterfeit productions, which is ego-filling sugar; it is verily, a mirror of their own dark Soul.
Christianity is referenced as
post-Christendom for real reasons; it failed by modern times and for good reasons. Now of course, the Godless-religious drones of the
Monetizers , must think that large numbers equals success (dollars, followers, likes, adherents, etc.), just like being a money rich
Mammon servant, defines all earthbound qualities and qualifications. But being Spiritually blind, they can only filter all things through their carnal membranes of humanistic success, for that is how the blind must navigate their darkness (Luke 6:39-40;
Matt 23 all).
To be a future resurrected Saint of YHVH, is first to be a disciple of Messiah Yeshua; to be set apart from the sum of
the World and the worldliness that defines it and them. Christianity is as worldly as any religion known of, anywhere on Earth forever. This is why YHVH had to come to Earth, in Person; not just to make propitiation for the sins of the species, but to expose the Saints from the rest, like wheat is from weeds or sheep are from goats, knowing that we will still remain hopelessly human until the end of this human experiment. It is why He read only these particular and specific words in their synagogue on the Sabbath:
The Spirit of The Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor ; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives , and recovering of sight to the blind , to set at liberty them that are bruised , to preach the acceptable year of The Lord! (
Luke 4 :14-19)
(Isa 61:1-2)
There is no mention or hint of the socially superior; of the wealth-class; of the politicians or their militants; even of the religious. Why? There is no need trying to reach people that have worked (and thus squandered) their earthly life, trying to gain power or superiority, of any kind, over others. A humble lifestyle is not what we Messianic disciples resign ourselves to, due to some failure; rather, it is what and how we purposefully seek to live.
Notwithstanding, what good is it to explain what you see to a blind man? Even after you are done, he is still blind and did not really understand (nor really care) what you said anyway. Messianic disciples are to use the time they/we have wisely (Matt 10:14; John 6:43-46): Precious few there will be that will truly seek or find The Lord (Matt 7:13-14). We live as that Messianic light (
Matt 5 ), and those who are called by YHVH to seek it, will gravitate to it, without any form of evangelistic recruitment on our part (Matt 8:19-22).
Only those of us fortunate enough to have been humiliated, humbled, beaten, broken and crushed into ashes, are to have even a chance of recovering from the superpower of human volition, driven by the mighty power pride-ego-emotion, Satans only real weapon against his arch-enemy; my Master, Messiah Yeshua. If you know the
Q-source book of Luke, you know that before the reading of the
Isaiah scroll reiteration, He had just been tempted by Satan, which followed the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Satans continuing goal is that of earthly success via earthly weapon$.
For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted! Then He said also to him that bade Him:
When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brethren, neither your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbors, lest they also bid you again, and a recompense be made you. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and you shall be blessed, for they cannot recompense you: For you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the Just! (
Luke 14 :11-14)
Then came to Him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection, and they asked Him, saying: Master, Moses wrote unto us, if anyone's brother dies, having a wife, and he dies without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her, and in like manner the seven also, and they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of them is she? For seven had her as wife. But Yeshua answering said unto them:
The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: But they, which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead , neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of Elohim, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called Adonai, the Elohim of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. For He is not a Elohim of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him! (
Luke 20 :27-38)
This life is not even about this life! It is a randomized test-experiment to see what we will do with the unscripted events that we will find ourselves within. Those who are called-chosen know this; our faith in the future resurrection is more real (and thus more powerful) to us, than the here and now (Luke 17:5-6): That reality can be seen primarily in lifestyle choices (Matt 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-45), not in organized religion.
The lifestyle that YHVH decided upon, when taking on human form as Messiah Yeshua, was deliberate; the greater lesson was not in the embedded theology, but in the open lifestyle that Messiah Yeshua lived, in the context of His time/culture. The fact that He was crucified by organized religious men devoted to their scripture, and in alliance with the money empowered politicians and their militants, is more vital to understand than anything that my brother Saul ever wrote. The fact that He was crucified as a guiltless man, and, next to a thief; these are vital realities to understand.
Today, as in all human history, there are great monetary profits in conflict, oppositionism, territorialism, nation-building, war-mongering, and fear-mongering. There is also great ego boosting in these power productions as well, for the dominators or Hitler-types (and they are many). But it is all Satan, via his demonic human servants. Of course, the bulk of the accountable adult human species, are ultimately doomed unto
Darkness , and that is because they never surrender unto any Lordship but their own.
These human masses create the human world that all life forms on Earth, must endure on this tiny blue marble in space. They are passionately militant and hunger-lust to employ the threat of suffering and death to control others, who in turn, retaliate with the same mind and subsequent lifestyle. Those lifestyles collectively manifest in
the World , as nation-state (map-line) created governments, and thus their politicians, and then their military machines. Many of them even glorify all of this sin-evil in the name of Jesus! They praise the military and make them out to be the heroes and saviors of their respective nation-states.
Now of course, they all do this under some of the most depraved of justification paradigms that the human mind can conceive. But YHVH is not mocked or fooled by such self-deception. And YHVH is highly offended when such demonic evil is justified by any of the god concepts, but especially those that even imply any direct or indirect association with Messiah Yeshua. The USA will go down in the annals of time as the single most depraved nation-state on Earth, chiefly for its profession as a Christian nation, when it is in fact, a Satan nation, camouflaged behind a Jesus mask.
The Cross ☥☥☥
Yeshua the Messiah, was very wise for His age; what we would likely label as genius. But Yeshua was a country boy; He was rural, living and engaging the natural world. The Messiah as Tekton, reveals much about His social level and economic stature, all of which was quite intentional by YHVH. We know that He never built Himself a home (Matt 8:20; Luke 9:58): It is also logical to assume (however) that He knew His life here on Earth was to be short, for He was earth-born to be the
Lamb that was slain, not to marry, procreate, work a career and then senescence.
But understanding First Century construction methodology, as well as the crafts and trades, helps us to understand our Master in relation to the
Messiah Scriptures : Understanding the culture and the politics also helps us to understand the scripture in that context. Indeed, many of the parables Yeshua employed came from His employment; from His culture; from how humans lived upon Earth, back then and verily, for most of human-time.
For example, the hills of
Golgotha was an elevated area that was selected to display those sentenced to die: It was a fear tactic; hence, up on a hill, so it could easily be seen from almost anywhere around it. The power-driven, hunger-lust to exhibit their dominionship over others, for it is Satans way. Not long after the crucifixion of Messiah Yeshua, the Place of the Skull became desolate of trees, and unto this day.
The Roman Imperialists would order laborer slaves to clear-cut all trees and foliage, except for the (select) trees to be used for
crucifixion poles. They would strip trees designated to be the upright (crucifixion) posts of all limbs and branches, leaving only a twelve-foot tall stump; hence, crucified on a tree!
The carpenters milled (roughly) 4x8-inch horizontal reusable cross-beams, with holes already bored through, to accommodate wooden spikes, which would wedge in. A rounded slot was cut into the very top of the tree-stump, allowing the rope to glide through it, as the cross beam (with the person already attached) was raised until the beam reached a dado notched into the tree: The rope was secured to the back of the tree, but left on the cross beam so the dead bodies could later be lowered.
The 'tree stump' methodology would eliminate the need to cut down a tree, mill it into a piece of building material, and then dig a deep hole to re-secure it back into the ground. The natural stump is more secure and would last longer. They reused these tree-stumps many times for decades. Before the modern crane, most high-up construction work was done using similar methods; hence the necessary T-shape.
The intent of impaling the human body was for torture; crucifixion likely had nothing to do with execution itself; it was more about public humiliation than anything (Mark 15:16-20). Crucifixion was a public reminder of what happens when you defy the wealth-class, who could afford lands and castles and armies, which is what gave them their self-superior king-ships and lord-ships to begin with, within Satans monetized
Mammon systems.
Unlike the French Revolution's
guillotine , which was public but at least quick, those hanged by the neck at noon in the American Old West, would be left dangling until sundown for the same reason; a public warning designed to induce a fear of criminal consequences. White power will never change unto the return of The King, and trying to get therm to see beyond this life is futile; whitewashed tombs indeed!
Dead Man Walking!
The Romans would drive thin but wedge-shaped hardwood spikes (stakes) through the palms of the hands, and into pre-bored holes in the cross-beam; not to actually dangle people from them: The ropes held the weight of (both) the human body and the beam. They would be tied and then spiked to the cross-beam, before they were escorted on the
walk of shame (the
Via Dolorosa ) to the execution-area stand of trees, which were reused over and over.
The feet were then spiked to the lower part of the tree to a block designed for this, to keep them from flailing about, trying to get down (when not being watched). The symbolic act of spiking (nailing; piercing; staking) the hands was to show onlookers the painful price for criminal acts, for which we use our hands and feet to complete these evil deeds. Remember; their justice was an eye for an eye (Matt 5:38-39; Exo 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20; Deu 19:21).
Indeed, once we have a deeper understanding of the natural world, as well as the time and culture that Messiah Yeshua was operating within; scripture takes on a life of its own, well beyond the modernity that has long infected it. Even friendship with those committed to
Messianic Judaism would expand the mind of those currently confined to western enculturation paradigms. Those who are dominated by the modern (and now the mostly westernized) world are oblivious, because they are enculturated, not recreated!
Without the Indwelling Holy Spirit to enlighten them, humans are Spiritually blind: We all have brains, but precious few have the mind of Messiah! (1Co 2:9-12,13-16): Was blind but now I see! And a Tekton was someone who could repair anything that's broken or worn out. Messiah Yeshua is still doing this today! He heals the Soul, by His Impartation: From the Indwelling Holy Spirit, we are renewed; restored; recreated; reborn; resurrected! But the carpenter cannot begin the work until He is first allowed all the way in. (More references to a tree: Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Gal 3:13-14; 1Pe 2:21-24)