Isaiah 44:13 - "The carpenter stretches a line, he makes it out with a pencil; he fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house."

Mark 6:3 - "Is not this the carpenter, the son ot Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?"

2 Samuel 5:11 - "And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house."

Matthew 13:55 - "Is not this the carpenter’s son?"

We can’t really talk about carpenters in the Old Testament, because there is no such word in Hebrew. And this has a logical explanation. Because of their nomadic origin, the early Hebrews were backward in this skill. Actually, when the word is used, it is in reference to cabinet-makers, cartwrights, wood-sculptors, and such. Since they didn’t settle in one place long enough to build houses, timber work as such was not important to them. Because of this, by the time they settled and started building cities, they found themselves in a bind as far as skilled workmen went.

Well, this might have been all right as far as the homes of the common people went, but the palace of the king, and, especially, the House of God, had to be a far better example of the carpenter’s art than the Hebrews themselves could produce. So both David and Solomon imported carpenters from Phoenicia to build the palace-Temple complex in Jerusalem.

However, as with anything else that is necessary, the people soon learned for themselves, and, later, native carpenters were skilled enough to repair the temple (2 Kings 12:11; 22:6). During the Exile, they were carried into captivity and, presumably, few chose to return, because Ezra again imported Phoenicians (Ezra 3:7). This would seem to indicate that they were well established and probably doing well financially. We do know, that in later Old Testament times, they were organized into guilds, and we also know that some kind of simple building code probably existed. This is verified by the Oxyrhynthus Papyrus.

The chief work of the carpenter by New Testament times was making roofs, doors, window-shutters, lattice squares, divan frames for the houses, plows, and yokes. Since Jesus was a carpenter, it was natural for him to think of the yokes which he had made, and to say "my yoke is easy and the burden is light."

Today’s carpenters, cabinet-makers, woodworkers of all kinds have motor-driven tools to assist them in their work. But in the biblical times, the carpenter had to depend on such simple tools as compasses, planes, pencil, saws, hammers, nails, files, chisle, awls, squares, plumb lines, and adzes. And, most of all, his own strong back!