First Nations Christmas Story (11)

The First Nations Version New Testament was birthed out of a desire to provide an English Bible that connects, in a culturally relevant way, to the traditional heart languages of the over six million English-speaking First Nations people of North America.

I thought it might be of interest to you to present the Christmas story from this version. Hopefully it will help you understand the story in some new nuances and insights.

Reading notes: In an effort to present the story as a narrative, at times reasonable implied story lines are added within, above and below the text. These lines are italicized. Also, Native naming traditions are followed for the proper names in the story, but the more well-known names are added in parentheses with font size reduced to help the reader’s eyes skip over them if desired.

DREAM GUIDANCE

After Looks Brave (Herod) died, a spirit-messenger from Creator appeared again to He Gives Sons (Joseph) in a dream while he was still in Black Land (Egypt). The spirit-messenger said to him, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to the land of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel), for the ones who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

He Gives Sons (Joseph) got up, took the child and his mother, and began to go where he was told. On the way, when he heard that Rules the People (Archelaus), the son of Chief Looks Brave (Herod), had become the new chief, he became afraid.

After being warned in another dream, he took a different path to their home through Circle of Nations (Galilee), to an out-of-the-way village most people looked down on, called Seed Planter Village (Nazareth). This gave full meaning to the words of the prophets, “He will be called a Seed Planter (Nazarene).”

Many long winters had come and gone. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was now thirty winters old—a mature man. The People of Iron (Romans) had many new rulers and governors, and the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel) had a new chief holy man for the sacred lodge.