First Nations Version An indigenous translation of the New Testament Terry M. Wildman (IVP-USA, Aug 2021) 512pp, paperback, RRP £16.32
Here is a new translation of the New Testament but probably not like any you have read before. It is a modern translation into the idiom of Native American languages and culture. It is written by and primarily for the indigenous peoples of Turtle Island – the name for North America before the white settlers arrived, bringing Christianity with them. Native Americans for the most part can no longer read the scriptures translated into their native languages since they have been assimilated, made to learn English in school and their native tongues suppressed. And many are hostile to Christianity because of what was done to them in the name of Christ.
So why should we read this translation? Because of innovations such as translating the names of the New Testament characters into their original meanings as would happen in an Indian context: so ‘Creator sets Free’ means Jesus; ‘Small man’ is Paul, and Isaiah is called ‘Creator will help us’, while the Romans become ‘People of Iron’. This gives reading the New Testament a depth which the New Testament Christians would have understood but which we have lost.
Secondly, because of the way Christianity was imposed through missions and boarding schools, the word sin is absent. In its place is ‘walking the wrong road’, repenting is ‘returning to the good road’. The kingdom of God is ‘the good road’. The Jews become the ‘Tribal Family’ but the good road is now open for all the tribes of the earth to walk. This translation makes the New Testament feel like a new book – if your experience of reading the New Testament has become formulaic, the coming of Creator sets Free to purify the bad hearts and broken ways of the tribal peoples of the world will let you see the good news with fresh eyes.
John Griffiths is a preacher and a Church of England lay reader, and a trustee of Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust (LWPT) and on the board of Preach magazine
