Ezra Churchill

Ezra Churchill (May 18, 1806 – May 8, 1874): Nineteenth-century industrialist, investing in shipbuilding, land, timber for domestic and foreign markets, gypsum quarries, insurance companies, hotels, etc. As a politician he held positions in the Nova Scotia legislature and was appointed a Canadian Senator for the Province of Nova Scotia. Churchill was also a Baptist lay preacher.

Early Life and Hantsport Years

Ezra Churchill was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, the son of Ezra Churchill and Elizabeth Trefry. In 1824, Churchill married Ann Davison and subsequently, after Ann’s death, married Rachel Burgess.

His move to the eastern end of the Annapolis Valley came with the purchase of a sixty-six acre lot at Hantsport in 1841 from Robert Barker, son of Edward Baker, the founder of the town. He enlarged his landholdings in the area and over the years sold lots to workmen and their families who are moving to Hantsport for the jobs being created by the shipbuilding boom.

Although Hantsport and area had been the location of a number of shipbuilding ventures, Churchill was the catalyst that transformed a small gathering of farms along the confluence of the Halfway and Avon rivers into a major shipbuilding port. Nearly two hundred vessels were built in the Hantsport area shipyards. Churchill became one of the largest shipbuilders and ship investors in Nova Scotia, launching dozens of large sailing vessels from his yards at Hantsport, as well as from Parrsboro, Canning, Newport, etc. Amongst his many vessels was the barque Hamburg, the largest three-masted sailing barque ever built in Canada.

Ezra

Ezra (/ˈɛzrə/; Hebrew: עזרא‎, Ezra; fl. 480–440 BC), also called Ezra the Scribe (עזרא הסופר, Ezra ha-Sofer) and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe and a priest. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem (Ezra 7–10 and Neh 8). According to 1 Esdras, a Greek translation of the Book of Ezra still in use in Eastern Orthodoxy, he was also a high priest.

Several traditions have developed over his place of burial. One tradition says that he is buried in al-Uzayr near Basra (Iraq), while another tradition alleges that he is buried in Tadif near Aleppo, in northern Syria.

His name may be an abbreviation of עזריהו Azaryahu, "God-helps". In the Greek Septuagint the name is rendered Ésdrās (Ἔσδρας), from which the Latin name Esdras comes.

The Book of Ezra describes how he led a group of Judean exiles living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem (Ezra 8.2-14) where he is said to have enforced observance of the Torah. He was described as exhorting the Israeli people to be sure to follow the Torah Law so as not to intermarry with people of particular different religions (and ethnicities), a set of commandments described in the Pentateuch.

Uzair

Uzayr - most often identified with the Judeo-Christian Ezra (عزير, 'Uzair) - is a figure mentioned in the Qur'an, in the verse 9:30, which states that he was revered by the Jews as "the son of God". Jews do not agree on that statement. Historically, Muslim scholars have interpreted this verse as referring to a small group of Jews making such a reverence.

Ezra lived between the times of King Solomon and the time of Zachariah, father of John the Baptist. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Quran among the prophets, Ezra is considered as one by some Muslim scholars, based on Islamic traditions. On the other hand, Muslim scholars such as Mutahhar al-Maqdisi and Djuwayni and notably Ibn Hazm and al-Samaw'al accused Ezra (or one of his disciples) of falsification of the Torah. Several sources state that the Qur'an refers to Jews who began to call Ezra a "son of God" due to his religious achievements.

Gordon Darnell Newby states it may due to misunderstanding of Ezra's position in the Jewish faith as a Bene Elohim. Other Western scholars, relying on exegetical material from Ibn Abbas and Ibn Qutaybah, consider Uzair not to be Ezra but Azariah, mentioned in the Book of Daniel as Abednego.

Ezra (disambiguation)

Ezra is a male biblical name derived from Hebrew (עזרא) and must not be confused with the Turkish female name Esra. In a biblical context, Ezra refers to:

Ezra may also refer to:

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