Philip W. Comfort on Mark 6:3

  

Mark 6:3

TR WH NU       ὁ τέκτων, ὁ υἱὸς τῆς Μαρίας

 

“the carpenter, the son of Mary”

א A B C D L W Δ Θ f syr^,p cop^sa Celsus^{according to Origen}

 

all

 

variant 1          του τεκτονος υιος και της Μαριας

 

“son of the carpenter and of Mary”

 

f¹³ 33^vid (565) 700 Origen

 

nrsvmg nebmg rebmg nltmg netmg

 

variant 2          υιος του τεκτονος, ο υιος της Μαριας

 

“the carpenter’s son, the son of Mary”

 

𝔓⁴⁵

 

Netmg

 

Both NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ cite 𝔓⁴⁵ as supporting the first variant, but they place it in parentheses to show that it does not exactly read this way. In fact, the extant portion of 𝔓 shows [τεκτον]ος ο υ̅[̅ς̅]̅ (see Text of Earliest MSS, 166). This reading could perhaps support the first variant if ο υιος is attached to του τεκτονος = “the son of the carpenter.” However, since 𝔓⁴⁵ appears to show υιος as a nomen sacrum (there is an overbar showing over the first letter of υιος), it seems just as likely that the scribe wrote what is indicated in the second variant—inasmuch as Jesus’ divine status was attached to his virgin birth through Mary.

 

The scribes who created the first variant did so to harmonize Mark 6:3 with Matt 13:55 or to obfuscate what some might consider an offensive statement—i.e., Jesus was here said to be not just the son of a carpenter but a carpenter himself! For example, Origen countered Celsus, a second-century antagonist of Christianity who attacked its founder as being nothing but “a carpenter by trade.” Origen argued that “in none of the Gospels current in the churches is Jesus himself ever described as a carpenter” (Cels. 6.34 and 36). Origen must have forgotten Mark 6:3, or the text he knew of was like that found in the first variant.

 

There is nothing demeaning about Jesus being a carpenter. The Greek term describes a person who works in wood or stone. According to a second-century tradition (Justin, Dial. 88), Jesus constructed farm implements such as plows and yokes (cf. Jesus’ statement in Matt 11:29). But he could have been a stone mason or house builder in nearby Sepphoris. Prior to beginning his ministry at the age of thirty, he supported himself and his family by the trade he had learned from his father (see Matt 13:55).

 

Some scholars have argued that the first variant is original because the reading of the text represents a dogmatic correction in the interest of the virgin birth. But the first variant is probably a scribal attempt to avoid directly saying that Jesus was “the son of Mary,” which is an unusual way of identifying Jesus. Some scholars say that this was a disparaging remark because “it was contrary to Jewish usage to describe a man as the son of his mother, even when she was a widow, except in insulting terms. Rumors to the effect that Jesus was illegitimate appear to have circulated in his own lifetime and may lie behind this reference as well” (Lane 1974, 202–203). But McArthur (1973, 55) argues that the expression “son of Mary” represents an “informal descriptive” rather than a “formal genealogical” way of identifying Jesus by his well-known mother. In other words, these words in the mouths of the Galileans were not pejorative or theologically loaded. (Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the Variant Readings of the Ancient New Testament Manuscripts and How They Relate to the Major English Translations [Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008], 112-13)