The “JESUS” film has reached a significant landmark: the movie portraying the life of Jesus has now been translated into 2,000 languages. The JESUS Film Project’s Josh and Holly Newell announced the exciting news in a video posted to YouTube last week.
“We’ve got a milestone to share with you,” said Josh Newell, executive director of the Jesus Film Project. “The Jesus Film is now available in 2,000 languages.”
Josh’s wife, Holly, who is over Staff and Partner Care, said, “We believe that lives are changed when people have an opportunity to hear about Jesus. So this milestone…isn’t just a number. It represents what God has done in the lives of people around the world as they’ve had the chance to hear about Jesus in their own language.”
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‘JESUS’ Film Reaches the World
The ‘JESUS’ film tells the story of the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke and was released in U.S. theaters in 1979. The film was funded by campus Crusade for Christ, now known as Cru, which still oversees the film’s ministry. After its release, Cru’s founder, Bill Bright, “set a goal to translate and dub ‘JESUS’ into 163 languages.”
“By the end of 1980,” says the JESUS Film Project’s website, “the Hindi language version of ‘JESUS’ was viewed by more than 21 million people, field teams were showing the Tagalog version in the Philippines, and another 29 languages with at least 1 million speakers were recorded, mixed and distributed. Because of God’s blessing and far-reaching cooperation within the body of Christ worldwide, ‘JESUS’ became the world’s most translated film in history.”
The JESUS Film Project was founded as a ministry in 1985. By 2001, the ‘JESUS’ film had been shown in every country in the world. The JESUS Film Project says that over 490 million people have trusted in Jesus as a result of watching the movie.
The language through which the JESUS Film Project reached its newest milestone is Zo, which is spoken by people who are from Myanmar, but who also live elsewhere in the world, including India and parts of Bangladesh. “The printed Bible in Zo isn’t widely available in Myanmar, and many Zo can’t read,” says the JESUS Film Project. “We’re praying this new translation of ‘JESUS’ in Zo provides a way for the Zo to have access to the story of Jesus in a format they can understand, wherever they are.”
Through God’s faithfulness, Jesus Film Project has reached an amazing milestone: the “JESUS” film has been translated into its 2,000th language—the Zo language.
— Jesus Film® (@JesusFilm) November 7, 2022
Holly Newell shared that in celebration of this latest achievement, the JESUS Film Project plans over the next several months to share stories of people whose lives have been impacted by “JESUS.”
“It’s a celebration of all that God has done over 40 years,” said Josh Newell. “It’s also a celebration of a coming day when no one will have to learn a second language to hear Jesus say, ‘I love you.’ And it’s a picture of people like you joining together in the mission, partnering with God to make it happen.”
