This is from one of my favourite blogs: Internets Dairy.

How good a carpenter was Jesus?

I ask because I was in church the other day, singing a hymn, when a line about Jesus' hands being 'skilled at the plane and the lathe' came up.

But what evidence is there for these woodworking skills? There are plenty of stories about Our Saviour raising the dead, turning water into wine etc. Precious little about him making a cassette rack, or turning a stable into a breakfast bar. The disciples were generally pretty fulsome in their praise of Jesus; that they don't mention his craftmanship implies it was bad or indifferent at best.

Also: this was a man who - famously - was actually nailed to some wood for some time. Wouldn't a proper carpenter have made some kind of professional comment in those long, long hours? 'The join between the crossbar and the upright isn't quite flush - you should have used a dovetail,' perhaps. 'Good choice on the asphaltum varnish; it should be blood-proof and it really brings out the grain.' But no, he just bangs on about being thirsty.

Could it be that hymns aren't peer reviewed?