The Bible in Sesotho

Sesotho 1909 and 1989

Eugène Casalis and Samuel Rolland, two missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, started translating the Bible into Sesotho as early as 1836 and the first Scriptures, the Gospels according to Mark and John, were published in 1839.

The translation of the complete Bible was finished in 1878 and printed in parts on the missionary presses at Morija and Masitisi in Lesotho. The first Bible to be published in one volume was printed in England in 1881, however, due to the Basotho wars the Bibles only reached the Basotho in 1883. This Bible which is still in use, was revised in 1909.

The most recent translation of the Sesotho Bible was published in 1989.