TANNER

A person skilled in the tanning profession, the craft of converting animal hides into leather that can then be used to make articles of various kinds. (2 Ki. 1:8; Matt. 3:4) Doubtless the tanning operation was performed in the past as it has been recently in the Middle East, in a one- or two-room tannery housing tools and vats for preparing the hides. The basic process of preparing leather involved (1) loosening the hair, usually with a lime solution, (2) removing the hair, bits of flesh and fat adhering to the hide, and (3) tanning the hide with a liquor made from such things as sumac or oak bark, or from certain kinds of plants.

Peter spent “quite a few days . . . in Joppa with a certain Simon, a tanner,” whose house was by the sea.—Acts 9:43; 10:32.