Acts 18:3

Of the same craft [ο μ ο τ ε χ ν ο ν] It was a Rabbinical principle that whoever does not teach his son a trade is as if he brought him up to be a robber. All the Rabbinical authorities in Christ's time, and later; were working at some trade. Hillel, Paul's teacher, was a wood - cutter, and his rival, Shammai, a carpenter. It is recorded of one of the celebrated Rabbis that he was in the habit of discoursing to his students from the top of a cask of his own making, which he carried every day to the academy.

Tent - makers [σ κ η ν ο π ο ι ο ι]. Not weavers of the goat's - hair cloth of which tents were made, which could easily be procured at every large town in the Levant, but makers of tents used by shepherds and travelers. It was a trade lightly esteemed and poorly paid.