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The Chosen TV series is making history as it aims to be translated into 600 languages.
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The Chosen TV series is making history as it aims to be translated into 600 languages.
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The Bible took front and centre during this year's International Translation Day.

"The most translated efforts going on are around the Bible," said Stan Jantz, President and CEO of Come and See, in an interview. "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."

To date, The Chosen TV series depicting the life of Jesus and His disciples has been translated into 50 different languages. Come and See hopes to translate all the seasons into many more. 

"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."

They have already heard and felt the impact the translation of the TV series has had on people. 

"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."  

Out in the African country of Madagascar, the translation has had a personal impact on the government. 

"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.'"

So that is exactly what they did. Come and See made it possible for The Chosen to be available in Malagasy and it's been shown in many places that house hurting people in need of hope. 

"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."

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