First Nations

Review: First Nations Version

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First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament, Terry M. Wildman, Consulting editor, First Nations Version Translation Council. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2022.

Summary: A dynamic equivalent English translation of the New Testament by and for the First Nations people in North America, using the cultural idioms resonating with First Nations people.

“Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who walk a trail of tears, for he will wipe the tears from their eyes and comfort them.”

Matthew 5:4, First Nations Version

I had just begun reading through the First Nations Version of the New Testament when this translation of Matthew 5:4, amid what we call the Beatitudes, stopped me in my tracks. The Trail of Tears is a reference to one of the most tragic episodes of American history, when the administration of Andrew Jackson forcibly removed the “Five Civilized Tribes,” the peoples of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations from the southeastern United States to land west of the Mississippi. Over 60,000 were removed and many never made it, dying from exposure, disease, and starvation. If another nation were doing this, we might call it genocide. I was talking with Richard Foster during a recent interview and he observed that there is not a Native Person in this country who has not walked a trail of tears. The actions of Jackson’s administration epitomized what happened throughout this continent.

What a powerful idiom for a First Nations person! I do not think “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mathew 5:4, NIV) would speak in the same way. It doesn’t for me. I found myself lamenting our terrible history of displacing people from their ancestral lands across this country, certainly in my own state where the name of every river, and even the name of the state, attest to the people whose ancestral home is where I have lived my whole life.

This one verse illustrates the basic approach of the First Nations Version translators. It is a “thought for thought” or dynamic equivalence approach, seeking to use cultural idioms that speak, in English, to the hearts of First Nations people. Terry M. Wildman, the lead translator of a council of twelve all represented the diverse tribal and denominational heritages of North America. Wycliffe Associates of Orlando provided technical support and funding to gather this council. Between the council and reviewers and cultural consultants, thirty-three tribal heritages were represented. They also enjoyed the collaborative support of Rain Ministries, OneBook of Canada, Wycliffe Associates, Native InterVarsity, and Mending Wings.

I was struck that this translation reflects an oral, story-telling culture. This is reflected in this video in which Terry Wildman renders the translation of the Lord’s prayer and teaching on prayer (Luke 11:1-4; 9-10)

One of the other distinctions of this translation is the translation of the meaning of Greek and Hebrew names and titles. Jesus is “Creator Sets Free.” Abraham is “Father of Many Nations.” Jerusalem is “Village of Peace.” Both Jewish and tribal cultures believe names have meaning, and so they chose to translate the meaning of names. Other concepts are idiomatically translated: rabbis are “wisdomkeepers,” temples are “sacred lodges,” angels are “spirit-messengers.” The Gospel of John is “He Shows Goodwill Tells the Good Story.” More information about the translation process may be found at the First Nations Version website.

At times, the text includes insertions of explanatory or transitional material, aiding in the understanding of the story. This is set off with a sidebar and italics. I did not find this to be intrusive. I also felt that the dynamic equivalent, idiomatic rendering brought out meaning in the text but seemed less interpretive to me than Eugene Peterson’s The Message, which is more of a paraphrase. I suspect this reflects the careful control of a translation council and Wycliffe Associates technical assistance. The only challenge is that when you have a number of translated names in a passage, the reading aloud of the passage may be cumbersome, as I found in using this version for a reading that included the names of the twelve apostles.

It is subtle, but I also thought this version captured the context of Jews under Roman Rule–the People of Iron. Reading scripture through indigenous eyes seemed to emphasize the realities of being subject tribes, that we may not so readily see in other dominant Western culture translations. The use of Outside Nations rather than “Gentile” gave much more a sense of the “otherness” of these people, and the remarkable thing that happens when the good story goes to those “outside.”

The primary audience for this translation are the over six million First Nations people of North America. But this is also a translation for those who want to read scripture through indigenous eyes. I want to use this side by side with other translations in study. I’m also heartened to hear that work has begun on a translation of Psalms and Proverbs. Under God’s grace and provision, I hope we will see the remainder of the Old Testament translated someday. There is so much of God’s good story yet to be rendered. But this is a good beginning.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: The Everlasting People

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The Everlasting People (Hansen Lectureship Series). Matthew J. Milliner, Contributions by David Iglesias, David Hooker, and Amy Peeler, Foreword by Casey Church. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021.

Summary: A series of reflections upon the writings and life of G. K. Chesterton and how they fostered an appreciation of the art and history of the First Nations peoples of the Midwest.

What an unusual idea! Matthew Milliner, a history professor at Wheaton College, connects the writings and life of G.K. Chesterton to the indigenous arts, beliefs, and tragic history of the First Nations people of the American Midwest. So how did he make this connection?

It came as he read Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, noting Chesterton’s positive approach to pagan culture: “In so far as all this sort of paganism was innocent and in touch with nature, there is no reason why it should not be patronized by patron saints as much as by pagan gods.” In this work, part of the Hansen Lectureship Series, Milliner draws upon sources as diverse as Anishinabe sweat lodge experiences, the cosmology of Mississippian tribes, cave art, and archival and contemporary expressions of Christianity among First Nations people. What Chesterton did in recognizing the anticipation of Christian faith in European pagan experience, Milliner seeks to extend to the First Nations peoples of Midwest America, extending from the Ohio Country, the Great Lakes and as far west as Oklahoma.

While acknowledging the basis for criticism of Christian missions among indigenous peoples, he equally challenges the refashioning of First Nations religion into New Age religion. He contends that the relationship and integration of Christianity and Native religions extends back five centuries. Sadly, often times, the tragic history of the Midwest, as Milliner notes, involved Christians killing Christians, as happened at the peaceful settlement of Gnadenhutten, in my home state of Ohio on March 8, 1782 when Christian Lenni Lenape were slain after spending the night in prayer.

Having considered the tragic history, including the Trail of Death of Potawatami tribal members in the wake of the 1794 Treaty of Greenville (resulting in the removal of Native Peoples from their lands in my state), Milliner turns to a Chesterton poem on a Marian poem, The Queen of Seven Swords, focusing on the sufferings of Mary in the Passion of Jesus, recognized throughout the Midwest in numerous Catholic churches and cathedrals bearing the name of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Milliner believes these speak to the sufferings experienced in the settlement of those places, for those willing to consider the connection.

Milliner concludes with his experience of researching his own family history and how his forebears were implicated in the history of Native People in the American Midwest. This, for him is not an exercise in White shame but rather a reckoning of the cost of being a guest, as it were, on Turtle Island (the Native name for North America), on the lands of the First Nations. Furthermore, his engagement with Chesterton brings him an appreciation of the ways of God among the First Nations and their understanding of their place, which we have tragically ignored, reprising themes I’ve encountered in writers as diverse as Robin Wall Kimmerer (in Braiding Sweetgrass) and both Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson.

At times, I wondered if Milliner’s efforts to draw connections (for example between Underwater Panthers and colonizers, and between the Thunderbird and the cross) were stretching things. However, Milliner also challenges me as one who lives in the Ohio Country of the American Midwest to think about the meaning of our place. From the arrowheads we found as kids to the names of our rivers, it should have been evident that we have taken the place of peoples with a very different way of life, a culture, a spirituality. He challenges me to learn more about their presence in the places I’ve called “home,” a journey of that I have a sense will illumine, humble, and make me re-think many aspects of our local history.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.