The Most Translated Film in History, The JESUS Film, Released in 2,000th Language

Jesus Film Project just hit a huge milestone: 2,000 languages now have a translation of the JESUS Film! That means millions of people can watch JESUS — the most translated film in the world — in their heart language.

Ryan Wagner, Associate Director of Digital Strategies with Jesus Film Project, says each new JESUS translation opens doors that other Gospel-sharing methods might not be able to.

“In many places, you could have a translated Bible and say, ‘Here you go.’ But that doesn’t get that far,” says Wagner. “Literacy rates can be an issue. Maybe they’re primarily oral languages. Maybe it says Jesus rode in on a donkey. Well, what’s a donkey? Maybe they’ve never seen a donkey before…. So to be able to have an audio-visual tool is really quite essential in terms of the Great Commission being fulfilled.”

Then there’s the fact that often for minority languages, JESUS is the only film they may have. Wagner says, “We sit down on the couch and we go, ‘What movie do you want to watch tonight?’ Well, in some parts of the world, this is the movie. I mean, this is it. This is all that they have. So to be connected to something like that is so unique…. For many of these people groups, to see the story of Christ played out before them is monumental.”

Jesus Film Project hears powerful impact stories all the time. Wagner shares this report from a friend who helped at a JESUS Film showing in Peru:

“It was a smaller dialect for this smaller, working-class, farming-type population of people. They’re a little bit more outcast from the broader sense of society.

“He said there was this older Peruvian woman wearing the brightly colored garb and necklaces. She shuffled her feet up to him and she said, ‘Thank you for not forgetting about us.’”

Wagner says, “I remember that line and I love it so much because that’s really what it is. We use the term ‘everyone, everywhere.’ We want everyone to have a chance to hear the Gospel.”

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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Lyndsey Koh