Ezra: mover and shaker

Of course, in a historical sense, Ezra was a fifth century BC Jewish priest, scholar, copyist, and historian who wrote the two Chronicles and the Book of Ezra (of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh) and began the compiling and cataloguing of the Old Testament.

I whipped out the only Bible we have laying around the house, (the King James Version) and flicked to Ezra 7:6:

This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.

From this, we can assume that Ezra had connections. Maybe our Ezra can snare some rub out of this.

The fact that Ezra is regarded as a reasonably influential guy in the key texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is also a plus for anyone hedging their bets in an ontological sense

Comments

the Albino Bowler said…

I'm very curious about tasmania...

25 July 2008 at 12:37

Kris McCracken said…

Well Albino Bowler, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. I'm always looking for bloggable material.

25 July 2008 at 13:55

Neva said…

Very beautiful , your second son....

25 July 2008 at 15:27

freefalling said…

I had to look up "ontological".

26 July 2008 at 07:58

Dina said…

Well I'm glad you at least keep a Bible in the house (more than i can say for my Aussie daughter).

As an everyday word in Hebrew, ezra sounds positive and good. As you wrote already, it means help.
Help is a good thing that everybody needs.

26 July 2008 at 22:03

Becky said…

This is a beautiful shot. And a beautiful baby. I like the name Ezra, too. And I like your reasoning for choosing it - and not choosing others. :o)

Thanks for stopping by my blog...I look forward to visiting yours again in the future. Keep sharing with us your beautiful baby, and one of these days, please do share a poem of your own.

27 July 2008 at 07:31

Kris McCracken said…

"Ontological" can be a useful word, but my casual use of it is a sure sign that I have spent far too long in a university.

Dina, despite the fact that I was raised in a solidly agnostic household (with a tendency towards atheism), the various 'holy books' are always worth having around. Given the amount of time I've spent studying history and politics, that old bible has had a far work out!

Old Testament God is a little too shrill for my liking though (although it is a better read than the New Testament). That said, Jesus is fine with me and I can't say that my moral framework differs too much ("let he without sin..." "do unto others" et cetera). It's really only a stern, judgmental morality, and some of the dated stuff that jars with me.

28 July 2008 at 13:30

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.

This will hurt me...

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