In a book that sounds vaguely reminiscent of The Real Jesus by GTA, the Telegraph has a report about “Jesus was son of an architect, book claims". The Jesus Discovery by Dr Adam Bradford claims that Jesus would have had a high ranking position within the Jewish community, rather than the traditional view that his family was poor and outside of the established religious community.
He uses the accounts of the money changers at the Temple as an example of Him getting away with behavior that would have ostracized lower classed Jews of His day.
Those familiar with GTA’s works would recognize the argument that Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, would not be called a “carpenter” today. Dr Bradford argues that “master builder” or “architect” would be more accurate. He extends the argument, however, by saying that, according to the article, “Joseph’s position as an architect that would have first Christ brought him into contact with the Temple authorities.”
He then adds an interesting tie-in to the account in Luke where Jesus stayed behind at the Temple when He was 12. From there, Jesus could have progressed to become a high ranking Rabbi.
Interesting!! Might explain why Jesus was never dismissed by the authorities as uneducated or side-lined as irrelevant. I checked this out and there is an mp3 link to a lecture the guy gave on this at http://www.templehouse-publishing dot com
Slightly different take to the traditional chair maker line…
@Tim58: I got a chance to check out the mp3 link yesterday. Good stuff! Thanks for posting the link.