133. "The Carpenter Encouraged the Goldsmith"
"The Carpenter Encouraged the Goldsmith"
Another of the handicrafts in Scripture is carpentry. The building of the ark is a proof of the progress of this art before the Flood; and on very ancient monuments we see pictures of hatchets, saws, chisels, oil-horns, planes, drills, mallets, rules, plummets, squares, and baskets of nails, used by the very ancient Egyptians.
We know that "the cabinet-makers of Egypt were not one bit behind the very best of these days, either in design or manual execution." They made boxes inlaid with different woods and some of ebony inlaid with ivory. Veneering and dovetailing were also known then. And we read, Isaiah 41:7, "They helped every one his neighbor. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering; and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved."
Then in the New Testament there is Joseph the carpenter, the husband of Mary.