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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comAdam Clarke Commentary - Matthew 13:55 - 13:55
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Is not this the carpenter’s son? - Seven copies of the old Itala have, Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter? But it is likely our Lord, during the thirty years of his abode at Nazareth, wrought at the same trade with Joseph; and perhaps this is what is intended, Luk 2:51. He went down with them (his parents) to Nazareth, and was Subject unto them. An honest trade is no discredit to any man. He who spends his time in idleness is fit for any business in which the devil chooses to employ him.
Is not his mother - Mary, and his brethren, James, etc. - This insulting question seems to intimate that our Lord’s family was a very obscure one; and that they were of small repute among their neighbors, except for their piety.
It is possible that brethren and sisters may mean here near relations, as the words are used among the Hebrews in this latitude of meaning; but I confess it does not appear to me likely. Why should the children of another family be brought in here to share a reproach which it is evident was designed for Joseph the carpenter, Mary his wife, Jesus their son, and their other children? Prejudice apart, would not any person of plain common sense suppose, from this account, that these were the children of Joseph and Mary, and the brothers and sisters of our Lord, according to the flesh? It seems odd that this should be doubted; but, through an unaccountable prejudice, Papists and Protestants are determined to maintain as a doctrine, that on which the Scriptures are totally silent, viz. the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord. See Mat 1:25.