One skilled in a manual trade or art. The Hebrew word cha·rashʹ is most frequently translated 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” (De 27:15), “workers in wood and workers in stone” (2Sa 5:11), “carver of iron,” “wood carver” (Isa 44:12, 13), also as “smith” (1Sa 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, and wood and was a weaver and dyer, skilled “in every sort of craftsmanship.”​—Ex 35:30-35; see also 2Ki 12:11, 12.

Many crafts, such as toolmaking, carpentry, brickmaking, spinning, weaving, textile finishing, and making pottery and jewelry, were at one time simple household duties performed by ordinary men or women. Settled communal living, however, brought about specialization. Even before the Flood certain men were known as specialized craftsmen. (Ge 4:21, 22) Nebuchadnezzar took the craftsmen along with the princes and military engineers from Jerusalem captive to Babylon in 617 B.C.E. (2Ki 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. (Ne 3:8, 31, 32; 11:35; Jer 37:21; Ac 19:24-41) Details of how these specialized craftsmen carried on their work are not too well preserved, except the writing and artwork that come from Egypt and that 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; De 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 (or, artisans; Gr., te·khniʹtai) in Ephesus made a living by manufacturing silver shrines of Artemis.​—Ac 19:24-27.

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