'Extraordinary Feat': The Chosen Being Translated into 600 Languages Around the World

Experts in the area of Bible translation celebrated International Translation Day on Monday. 

According to the United Nations, "The day is meant as an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together, facilitating dialogue, understanding and cooperation, contributing to development and strengthening world peace and security."

CBN News spoke with Stan Jantz, President and CEO of Come and See, a nonprofit leader in the Bible translation industry, about the importance of their work.

"The most translated efforts going on are around the Bible," Jantz said. "And you have no doubt heard of Every Tribe Every Nation, which is a collection of Bible translation agencies, and their goal is to translate the Bible into every language on earth, and there are about 6,000 of them, by the year 2033, and so that many people will have at least a New Testament and probably about 95 percent will have the whole Bible in their heart language," Jantz said.

To reach more with the Gospel, the popular TV series "The Chosen," has been translated into over 50 languages. Come and See is on a mission to help translate the show's seven seasons into even more languages.

"We're taking a media project, a multi-season TV series about the life of Jesus and his chosen followers and translating that into 600 languages, which has never been done for a TV show of any kind... It's an extraordinary feat but we're excited about being in that process."

Jantz also explained the impact the translation project is having on communities around the world.

"We got a letter from a woman in India who watched The Chosen first in English, and of course most Indians speak English but it's not their first language. And then she watched it in Hindi, and it just changed the meaning of the show for her. It gave her such more connection to the characters," said Jantz. "She just said 'thank you for translating into Hindi because it was so much more meaningful for me to see it and experience it in my heart language."  

He also shared that translation efforts made it possible for countries like Madagascar to encounter Jesus Christ in their own language.

"The President of Madagascar is a Christian and he had seen The Chosen in English I think and he said, 'What I would like to do if you could translate it into Malagasy,' which is the language of Madagascar, it's one of the poorest nations on earth, 25 million people. He said, 'If you could do that we will show it in public places and make it available everywhere,'" Jantz said. 

He added, "As a result, they showed it throughout the country. They showed it in a prison. They showed it in an orphanage. They took it onto trucks into villages. They showed it on their public television. A year later we are still hearing results of people who have been impacted by this. They did a whole country-wide celebration. There were billboards all over just celebrating this idea. It's The Chosen but really it's Jesus."

As CBN News has reported, "The Chosen" tries to read between the lines in depicting the day-to-day ministry of Jesus, telling the Gospel story through the eyes of the people who encounter Him. The series is the largest crowdfunded television project in history and has continued to climb to new heights of success. 

It has been streamed more than 500 million times and has now been seen by more than 108 million people since Season 1 premiered.

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