Almeida Revista e Corrigida

The Almeida Revista e Corrigida (ARC) is one of the most influential and traditional Bible translations in Portuguese. It belongs to the line begun by João Ferreira de Almeida in the seventeenth century and remains the version many Portuguese-speaking Protestants know by heart.

History and Context of the Translation

João Ferreira de Almeida (1628-1691) was a Portuguese Protestant who worked in Southeast Asia under the Dutch Reformed Church. He began translating the New Testament into Portuguese at the age of sixteen and published it in Amsterdam in 1681 — the first Portuguese New Testament translated from the original languages. He was still at work on the Old Testament when he died in Batavia in 1691; it was completed by Jacobus op den Akker and published in full in 1753.

Almeida's text was revised repeatedly over the following centuries. The Revista e Corrigida, published by the Bible Society of Brazil, is the branch that stayed closest to the classical wording; revisions in 1898, 1969 and 1995 updated orthography and vocabulary without disturbing the version's character.

Translation Methodology

The ARC follows formal equivalence, translating as closely to the wording and structure of the original as Portuguese allows. Its New Testament rests on the Textus Receptus, the Byzantine Greek tradition of Almeida's own day, and its Old Testament on the Masoretic Text — which places it in the same textual family as the King James Version in English and the Reina-Valera in Spanish.

Distinctive Features

• Classical Portuguese: a formal, solemn register with a distinct rhythm, well suited to reading aloud.
• Textual continuity: the Textus Receptus basis keeps it aligned with the Reformation-era Bibles.
• Memorability: generations have memorised Scripture in its wording, and its phrasing shapes Portuguese-language hymnody and preaching.
• Literalness: its closeness to the original structures makes it useful for close study.

Use and Importance

The ARC is the standard Bible of many traditional Protestant churches in Brazil and Portugal, particularly Baptist, Presbyterian and Pentecostal congregations, and it is the base text of a large body of Portuguese-language hymns, catechisms and reference works. For Portuguese, Almeida occupies the place the King James Version holds in English: the translation that formed the religious vocabulary of a language.

Contemporary Relevance

More modern Portuguese translations exist, and some readers find the ARC's archaisms demanding. It nevertheless remains widely used and widely loved, valued for its fidelity to the original wording, its literary dignity and its continuity with more than three centuries of Portuguese-language Christianity.