First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021
ISBN:  9780830813599
512 pages

This dynamic equivalence translation of the Christian Scriptures imagines how these sacred texts might speak if they were being told in the tradition of Indigenous story-tellers using the practices of oral cultures.  Created by Translation Council made up of a group of Native North Americans diverse in tribal affiliation, age, gender and denomination, the FNV seeks a faithful rendering of the original text through the cultural lens of Native Americans.  It is an invitation to see how God is still speaking in ancient and traditional ways at the intersections of sacred scripture and indigenous spirituality, experiences, and storytelling.

Here’s the FNV translation of the Lord’s Prayer:

O Great Spirit, our Father from above,
we honor your name as sacred and holy.

Bring your good road to us,
where the beauty of your ways in the spirit-world above
is reflected in the earth below.

Provide for us day by day–
the elk, the buffalo, and the salmon.
The corn, the squash, and the wild rice.
All the things we need for each day.

Release us from the things we have done wrong,
in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us.

Guide us away from the things that tempt us to stray from your good road,
and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways.

Aho! May it be so!