First Nations Christmas Story (7)

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.

BIRTH OF THE CHOSEN ONE

Here is the story of how the Chosen One was born:

His mother, Bitter Tears (Mary), had been promised in marriage to He Gives Sons (Joseph). But before they came together in marriage, while still a virgin, she found out that she was carrying a baby in her womb from the Holy Spirit. He Gives Sons (Joseph) was a man of honor. He did not want to bring her trouble and open shame, so he thought about secretly releasing her from the marriage promise.

As he wondered about these things, a messenger from the Great Spirit appeared to him in a dream and said, “He Gives Sons (Joseph), descendant of Much Loved One (David), do not be afraid to take Bitter Tears (Mary) to be your wife, because the Holy Spirit has given her this child. She will give birth to a son. You will name him Creator Sets Free (Jesus), because he will set his people free from their bad hearts and broken ways.”

This gave full meaning to the words of Creator spoken long ago by the prophet, “A young virgin will be with child and give birth to a son. They will call his name Immanuel, which in our tribal language means Creator Is with Us.”

When He Gives Sons (Joseph) woke up, he followed the guidance given him in the dream and took Bitter Tears (Mary) to be his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until after the child was born, and he named the child Creator Sets Free (Jesus).