We know that Yeshua’s earthly father, Yosef, was a carptenter according the the gospel accounts. Or was he? Recent linguistic and cultural studies indicate that the vocation of Yeshua’s earthly father may not be as clear-cut as once thought.

According to those who promote this new theory, the word translated carpenter might not indicate the same sort of image that word brings up today of a semi-prosperous but humble man building various items and facilities, just as chairs, tables, and - at least according to one Kurt Vonnegut novel - execution stakes for the Roman army.

Instead, the word used can be interpreted to mean one who does a wide variety of menial manual labor, with duties ranging to such things as re-pitching house roofs, cleaning out stables and other, even less glamorous work. The according to the same researchers, people who did such work often lived on the edge of poverty.

Such an interpretation is not the traditional way we think of Yeshua’s family; rather than fitting into our definition culturally of a working middle class, Yeshua’s upbringing may have been far more humble than traditional thought and interpretation would lead us to believe. If - and this is a big if - these new researchers are correct. So, even though there were no class A motorhomes back in the first century, even if there had been, it’s likely such an extravagance would have been well out of Yosef and Miryam’s reach.