The Carpenter
The Greek word used to describe Jesus and Joseph as a “carpenter” in the New Testament is τέκτων or tekton (Strong’s G5045), which is defined as:
1) a worker in wood, a carpenter, joiner, builder
a) a ship’s carpenter or builder
2) any craftsman, or workman
a) the art of poetry, maker of songs
3) a planner, contriver, plotter
a) an author
As we can see, the designation in English of this word as “carpenter” is arbitrary, and there is little reason to suspect that it is more accurate than these other renderings. Jesus, therefore, could have been any sort of craftsman, including one who works with stone, making of him a mason. In this same regard, the word tekton in modern Greek oddly enough can also mean “Freemason.”
Christ as the TEKTON represents the builder of the temple. The temple as you should know ... is us ... our bodies. Paul states in scripture that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is also the temple of God, or God/Source within us ... that Divine Spark waiting to be released. Christ, as the master builder, is also responsible for sending the Holy Spirit (breath/life-force), and represents "the builder." The power that helps man build a temple of higher knowledge and spiritual Truth ... our Higher-Self.
So now we see that the carpenter/builder is the only logical choice for the first-born God that is to LIVE through us ... as it was for many earlier saviour figures and sages. In other words, it is the only logical spiritual choice.
Remember also that Gaskell's Dictionary of Scripture And Myth informs us that a carpenter is a symbol of the Divine Artificer, the One Life which constructs all things. He further instructs us that Spirit (heaven) and matter (earth) are the “artificers pair” from which all things are produced. More importantly, “from them, aspiration for growth arises.”
Spiritually speaking, aspiration is an important word. It signifies the yearning in the soul for something beyond physical life. Something beyond the physical. Wake up, go to work, come home and then get ready to do it all over again tomorrow. Caught up in the lower ego, we can find this process to be depressing. Often we have many other responsibilities that can weigh us down.
In the wrong frame of mind, these daily duties become a struggle. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We need to have a renewed mind where our everyday lives become a stream of spontaneous moments where we learn and grow spiritually.
This process becomes activated when we learn to change our perspective and engage in the process of becoming through present moment awareness and learning about the true inner Self ... the Christ, which is the latent potential always there waiting to be activated ... a present reality that all of us on the spiritual path aspire to tap into. This is the spiritual road some of us choose to undertake with this life we are experiencing.
The Christ, or Higher Self, is the Divine life that manifests from Source Energy/God, or primordial consciousness, that is the power to create. According to ancient scripture ... not only among Christianity but among other world belief systems ... the Christ (Divine Consciousness) is to be born within us.
Simply put ... this is the process whereby higher consciousness is raised from the lower mind to the Higher ... from ego to Divine. This process commences through the death of the lower ego ... our base animal nature. Our aspirations are the source for this process to begin, and, if you are reading this article, you are most likely on the path, as I have been for many years ... and will continue to be.
Just a thought ...
~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.
My thanks to Joshua Tilghman for his insight and knowledge.
