Through assertions of ‘sovereignty’, modern nation states lay claim to an undivided authority. It is commonly suggested that this kind of political assertion superseded the overlapping authorities of medieval theological imagination. But in settler colonial states, Indigenous sovereignties endure to the present, not washed away by the ‘tide of history’, and in many cases Indigenous peoples embrace Christian identities along with traditional law and custom. The peculiar complexities of Australian history reveal many counter-examples to the conventional modernist tale, and in particular, the article seeks to show how Indigenous Christians snatched the King James Bible from Protestant doctrines of discovery. This discussion comes at an historically significant time as Australian state governments contemplate treaty making with the First Nations, each of whom exercise their own alternative model of sovereignty within local jurisdictions. This article argues that biblical theologies can support the making of modern treaties.

通过宣称“主权”，现代民族国家宣称拥有独立的权威。通常认为，这种政治主张取代了中世纪神学想象力的重叠权威。但是在殖民殖民地国家中，土著主权一直存在到现在，而不是被“历史潮流”冲走，在许多情况下，土著人民都将基督教身份与传统法律和习俗结合在一起。澳大利亚历史的特殊复杂性揭示了许多与传统现代主义故事相反的例子，特别是，该文章旨在说明土著基督徒如何从新教发现理论中抢夺《詹姆斯国王圣经》。讨论是在历史上重要的时刻进行的，当时澳大利亚各州政府正在考虑与原住民缔结条约，他们每个人都在地方管辖范围内行使自己的替代主权模式。本文认为，圣经神学可以支持现代条约的制定。