Joseph figures prominently only in a couple chapters of Matthew's Gospel, but he obviously left a legacy in Jesus' life. Part of his legacy was his occupation. But what did Joseph do for a living? Matthew 13:55 [NASB] says that he was a carpenter. In Mark 6:3, Jesus is called a "carpenter." Most English translations agree with the NASB and use the word carpenter as well.
The Greek word is transliterated tekton [pronounced with a long 'o' sound]. What does it mean? It likely means more than just the idea that most folks have in their minds when they think 'carpenter.' In an excellent article a few years ago in JETS, Ken M. Campbell surveyed the use of the word in a variety of sources and concluded that a tekton was a general craftsman who worked with materials such as stone, wood, and sometimes metal in large and small building projects. A tekton would be involved in a variety of building projects including but not limited to houses, wine-presses, millstones, olive press stones, tombstones, cisterns, farm terraces, vineyards, watch towers, house extensions, etc. He rejects using the term "carpenter," and prefers "builder." That is more of a catch-all term and likely more descriptive of Joseph's and later Jesus' occupation.
My Dad would often say he was a "Jack-of-all-trades". Perhaps that colloquialism describes both what Joseph and later Jesus did for a living.
[Ken M. Campbell, "What Was Jesus' Occupation?" JETS 48 (September 2005): 501-19.]
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