A Note on Ephesians 6, First Nations Version
Bethany Printup-Davis based her reflections around the recently-released First Nations Version: A New Testament in English translated by Native North Americans for Native North Americans and all English-Speaking people. We at the Journal highly recommend reading and supporting the First Nations Version (their website can be found here). Bethany has offered this note of explanation on the translation:
By tradition, First Nations people are oral storytellers. The FNV is a retelling of the Creator’s Story—the Scriptures—following the tradition of the storytellers of these oral cultures. Many First Nations tribes still resonate with the cultural and linguistic thought patterns found in their original tongues. This way of speaking with its simple yet profound beauty and rich cultural idioms still resonates in the hearts of First Nations people.
This project was birthed out of a desire to provide an English Bible that connects, in a culturally sensitive way, the traditional heart languages of the over six million English-speaking First Nations people of North America. It is estimated that about 90% of First Nations people do not speak their tribal language, and even less can read it. This is the result of several generations of governmental assimilation policies that attempted to eradicate our over-250 languages spoken in North America and eliminate the cultures.
The FNV takes into consideration contextual word choices, idiomatic expressions (such as the use of "evil trickster" for the devil in Ephesians 6:11), and modifications in paragraph and sentence structure that clarity and facilitate understanding of the Scriptures. Its translation council is continually concerned with maintaining the accuracy of the translation and its faithfulness to the intended meaning of the Biblical writers within a First Nations context. The FNV is not a word-for-word translation, it is a thought-for-thought translation, often referred to as “dynamic equivalent.”
By tradition, First Nations people are oral storytellers. The FNV is a retelling of the Creator’s Story—the Scriptures—following the tradition of the storytellers of these oral cultures. Many First Nations tribes still resonate with the cultural and linguistic thought patterns found in their original tongues. This way of speaking with its simple yet profound beauty and rich cultural idioms still resonates in the hearts of First Nations people.
This project was birthed out of a desire to provide an English Bible that connects, in a culturally sensitive way, the traditional heart languages of the over six million English-speaking First Nations people of North America. It is estimated that about 90% of First Nations people do not speak their tribal language, and even less can read it. This is the result of several generations of governmental assimilation policies that attempted to eradicate our over-250 languages spoken in North America and eliminate the cultures.
The FNV takes into consideration contextual word choices, idiomatic expressions (such as the use of "evil trickster" for the devil in Ephesians 6:11), and modifications in paragraph and sentence structure that clarity and facilitate understanding of the Scriptures. Its translation council is continually concerned with maintaining the accuracy of the translation and its faithfulness to the intended meaning of the Biblical writers within a First Nations context. The FNV is not a word-for-word translation, it is a thought-for-thought translation, often referred to as “dynamic equivalent.”
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