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the family couldn' t afford any furni–
ture, that would say a lot about the
quality and type of home in which
he lived. lt would be hard to imag–
ine anything much better than a
stone or adobe hu
t.
This type of thinking is
in
the
same category with the traditiona1
conceptions of Jesus' physica1 ap–
pea rance. Jesus' legal father. Joseph,
was a just and righteous man (Matt.
1:19). It is inconceivab1e to think he
wasn't a good provider when the
Bible plain ly speaks of a deliber–
ate1y unemp1oyed ne' er-do-well as
having deoied th e faith and being
worse than a n infide1
(1
Tim. 5:8).
Hall Caine, in his book
The Lije
of Christ,
tells us: "Joseph is de–
scribed as a carpenter, which is
probably what we now, in country
towns, call a bui1der, combining a
variety of trades. C1early he was
widely known and generally re–
spected, and it is possible that
in
the
busy times that followed , when
there was much building in Galilee,
he became a man of certain sub–
stance" (p. 265).
Believe it or no t, Joseph and
Mary were handpicked as parents
by the Creator God. The Father
wou1d not have chosen "j ust any–
body" to bring up and educa te his
own Son. Joseph wou ld have had to
have been a mascu1ine individua l
who could properly provide for a
large fami1y. He would have had to
have been a man who would fo llow
the bíblica! principie of 1aying up
for his grandchildren (Prov. 13:22).
No accomplished artisan who is
in the business of building homes in
the modera world lives in a home
that is not the finest reftection of his
own craftsmanship - a custom-built
home worthy of his profession.
No, Jesus did
not
grow up in a
ramshack le hove! with no furniture
except a coupl e of beds. Very likely
he lived his adolescent years in a
home that was a reasonab1e facsím–
ile of the type of fine work that Jo-
The
PLAIN TRUTH October 1976
seph performed as a true artisan of
the building profession of that day.
But what type of furnitu re did
Jesus have in his home? William
Foxwell Albright, a well-respected
archaeo1ogist a nd scho1ar of that
Palestinian period, commented
briefty oo the furnishings of the day:
" ... The Israeli tes and Jews of the
New Testament period generally
sle pt in beds - high beds if the
owner of the house was rich, low
co ts
if
he was poor. In Israelíte times
[previous generations] people sat on
chairs or stools and often ate si tting
at a table. By New Testament times
the Greek cus tom of reclining at
meals [on a couch] had ga ined th e
day, and gues ts always reclined at
forma l dinners"
(The Archaeology of
Palestine,
p.
215).
Professor Albright's succinct com–
ment indicares th at the Jewi sh
people possessed the normal pieces
of furniture including ra bies and
couches. Mark 2: 15 does say that
"Jesus
sat
at meat," but the Greek
word,
katakeimai,
means to "recline
on a couch at table, dine" (Bauer–
Arndt-Gingrich,
A Greek-English
Lexicon of 1he New Testament ,
p. 4 12).
Jesus as an Adult
When Jesus grew into manhood, did
he continue to live in a home, or did
he usually sleep out of doors as a
vagabond? Time and time again, in
the account of his early rninistry
around the Galilean area, the Bible
shows Jesus was in a house - either
Peter's, one of the other disciples. or
his own. Notice a few outstand ing
examples: "And when Jesus was
come
into Peter's house . .. "
(Ma tt.
8: 14). Peter owned a home in Caper–
naum. So did Jesus! "While he yet
talked to the peop1e, behold, his
mother and his brethren stood
without"
(Matt. 12:46). Notice
that Jesus was indoors on
this occasion, a nd because
of the large group of people
inside, his own family could not en–
ter, but had to wait "without" or
outside.
"The same day went Jesus
out of
the house,
and sat by the sea side"
(Ma tt. 13: 1). Later " ... Jesus sent
the multitude away, and went
into
the house .
.. "
(verse 36). Again
Jesus sent the crowds away and en–
tered into a house. Very li ke ly, it
was
his own
since it was in Caper–
naum. Jesus con tinually went
in
and
ou t of Capernaum in the normal
course of conducting his Galilean
ministry.
Notice a few more examp1es:
"And again he entered into Caper–
naum after sorne days ; and it was
noised that he was
in the house"
(Mark 2: l).
The New English Bible
renders the expression " in the
house" as "at borne." So does the
Revised Standard Version and
Today's English Version. The New
Internationaf Version
has it : "He
had come home." Clearly Jesus
owned a home in Capernaum!
His house in Capernaum was
proba bly a fairly 1a rge one. Look at
Mark 2: 15: "And it carne to pass
that, as Jesus sat at meat
in his
house, many
publicans and sinners
sa t a lso toge ther with Jesus and his
discip1es; for there were many...."
The companion account in Luke
might 1ead one to believe that this
was Levi's house. Notice the word–
ing in Luke 5:29: "And Levi made
him [Jesus] a great feast in his own
house: and there was a great com–
pany of pu blicans and of others that
sat down with th em. " Howeve r, the
word ing in Matthew's gospel is very
similar to Mark's. Also, the context
itself of all three accounts tends to
indica te it was Jesus' house. "Andas
he passed by, he saw Levi the son of
Alphaeus sitting at the receipt of
custom, and said unto him, Fol–
low me. And he arose and fol–
lowed him" (Mark 2: 14; cf.
Luke 5:27-28; Matt. 9:9).
[t
wou1d seem far more li kely
29