“The carpenter, the son of Mary”
Mark 6:3
Cultural referenceWell-supportedThe Nazareth crowd
Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren't His sisters here with us as well? And they took offense at Him. (Mark 6:3 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A neutral family identification.
The cultural key
Two barbs hide in the wording. Matthew's version says 'the carpenter's son'; Mark's crowd calls Jesus 'the carpenter' outright, pinning him to the workbench. Sharper still is 'son of Mary': men were normally identified by their father even long after the father's death. Naming a grown man by his mother in public was irregular and, many scholars judge, insinuating, a whispered question about his legitimacy that may echo again in John 8:41 ('We were not born of sexual immorality').
Recovered meaning
The hometown does not just doubt Jesus; it reaches for the oldest slur available. Mark notes he could do no mighty work there: contempt, not distance, is the great insulator against him.
Parallels: Matthew 13:55; John 8:41