CRAFTSMAN

One skilled in a manual trade or art. The Hebrew word hha·rashʹ is most frequently translated (NW) by the general term “craftsman,” but when it occurs along with some particular material, the phrase is rendered more specifically, for example, “wood-and-metal worker” (Deut. 27:15), “workers in wood and workers in stone” (2 Sam. 5:11), “carver of iron,” “wood carver” (Isa. 44:12, 13), also as “smith” (1 Sam. 13:19) and “manufacturers.” (Isa. 45:16) Further illustrating the many specialties that come under the designation “craftsmanship” is the description of Bezalel who, along with Oholiab, was a worker with metals, precious stones, wood, a weaver and dyer, skilled “in every sort of craftsmanship.”—Ex. 35:30-35; see also 2 Kings 12:11, 12.

Many crafts, such as toolmaking, carpentry, brickmaking, spinning, weaving, textile finishing, making pottery and jewelry, to mention a few, were at one time simple household duties performed by ordinary men or women. Settled communal living, however, with emphasis on developing higher skills, brought about specialization. Even before the Flood certain men were known as specialized craftsmen. (Gen. 4:21, 22) Nebuchadnezzar took the craftsmen along with the princes and military engineers captive to Babylon in 617 B.C.E., the second time he came against Jerusalem. (2 Ki. 24:14, 16; Jer. 24:1; 29:2) In some towns craftsmen of a particular trade lived together in the same section where they eventually associated together in guilds, and became known by their occupation and exercised great influence in the affairs of the town. (Neh. 3:8, 31, 32; 11:35; Jer. 37:21; Acts 19:24-41) Details of how these specialized craftsmen carried on their work are not too well preserved, except those writings and artworks that come from Egypt and which vividly describe and illustrate the various craftsmen at work.

The prohibition against idolatry incorporated into the law of Moses kept the Jews from much of the then-common art of making figurines and the like as objects of devotion. (Ex. 20:4; Deut. 4:15-18; 27:15) Indeed, image worship and the development of art and carving grew side by side in nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. (Ps. 115:2, 4-8; Isa. 40:19, 20; 44:11-20; 46:1, 6, 7; Jer. 10:2-5) Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen in Ephesus made a living by manufacturing silver shrines of Artemis.—Acts 19:24-27.

For detailed considerations of the various crafts themselves, see the individual subjects such as CARPENTER; CARVING; DYES, DYEING; MASON; METALWORKER; POTTER; TANNER and others.