Translation of the Bible to Portuguese
Encyclopedia
The Book of Ecclesiastes was translated into Portuguese
by Damião de Góis
in 1538. The Book of Nehemiah
was translated by Dom Pedro II
, Emperor of Brazil
. For the most part, however, the Bible remained relatively untranslated to Portuguese. Services and Bible readings in the Church were conducted in Latin
, which the common people of Portugal and Brazil did not understand.
It was not until 1748 that the first complete version of the Bible was published in Portuguese. This version was translated by João Ferreira de Almeida
in 1628.
, Aramaic
and Greek
, the Holy Scriptures were unreadable by all except the most learned. Between the 2nd and 4th century AD the Christian faith and its Bible
spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire
. First came the Latin Bible, commissioned by the Pope
and translated by St. Jerome. The fragmentation of the Western Roman Empire
into multiple smaller empires formed multiple Latin-derived languages including the Romance languages
such as Portuguese
, Spanish
, Romanian
, French
, and Italian
. The Bible, however, remained only in Latin and its original languages.
With the decline of Latin came the fight for Bibles in each language. In general, the Roman Catholic Church
opposed efforts to translate the Latin Vulgate to modern spoken languages. Reformers like John Wycliffe
, Martin Luther
, William Tyndale
, and Casiodoro de Reina
are well known for translating the Bible into their own languages. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, Bibles were made in English, German
, Spanish
, and many other languages. Even so, it would be much later before the people of Portugal
would have a Bible in their native tongue.
. Due to the rebellion against the church in nearby countries, the Pope launched the Counter-Reformation
to strengthen the Church and increase its authority. João III, King of Portugal, established the Court of Inquisition
in 1536, and from executions
were used on almost anyone that was supposedly “against the Church.” Due to this power, the Inquisition
was able to repress the Portuguese Bible from being developed during the Reformation, and Portugal remained almost completely Catholic.
During this time, some small-scale translating of the Bible was done in Portugal. Damião de Góis
translated the first published portion of the Bible into Portuguese
in 1538. It was only the Book of Ecclesiastes, and was hardly ever used. Another fraction of the Bible was translated by Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
, and consisted only of the Book of Nehemiah
. For the most part, however, the Bible remained relatively untranslated to Portuguese. Services and Bible readings in the Church were conducted in Latin, which the common people of Portugal and Brazil did not understand.
, a man born in Torres de Tavares, Portugal in 1628. Little is known about Almeida. He was raised Catholic, but became a Protestant
as a young adult. Around the same time, he moved to a Portuguese-speaking region of Malasia
, to work for the local Igreja Reformada Holandesa, or Dutch Reformed Church
. Two years later, at the age of 16, Almeida began translating the New Testament
from Spanish to Portuguese.
In 1651, he became a chaplain
at the Presbitério da Batávia, in Jakarta
. There Almeida studied theology
and edited the parts of the New Testament that he had previously translated. He also began to take a stand against the Catholic Church, which went on to impede him from preaching in Portuguese. The Inquisition also ordered some of his writings to be burned publicly. In 1663 he began studying Greek and Hebrew, which allowed him to better translate the Bible into Portuguese.
After finishing the translation of the New Testament, Almeida fought a long battle in order to get it published. He sent his texts to the Netherlands
, but the process of publishing it took much longer than normal, due to resistance from the Church. Finally, in 1681, the Novo Testamento de Almeida (Almeida’s New Testament) was printed. However, this translation was laden with errors, and it took ten more years before it was ready for publication. During this time, de Almeida began translating the Old Testament
. He died in 1691, and had translated Genesis through Ezequiel
48:21. In 1694, his Old Testament was finished by a Dutch pastor, Jacobus op den Akker. It underwent many changes until it was finally published for the first time in 1748. The Old and New Testaments together became known as the Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida (João Ferreira de Almeida’s Translation).
After these two translations were published, a number of other versions followed, most of them simply revisions of Almeida’s text. In 1898, a commission of Brazilian translators edited the Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida to make it more understandable for those who spoke the Brazilian-dialect of Portuguese. It was called the Revista e Corrigida (Revised and Corrected). Another revision of Almeida’s translation, the Revista e Atualizada (Revised and Modernized), was made in 1956. The Versão dos Monges Beneditinos (Benedectine Monks’ Version) and the Versão dos Padres Capuchinhos (Capuchinho Priests’ Version) were separate translations made in 1959 and 1968, respectively.
The most commonly currently used translations are the second edition of the Revista e Atualizada (1993) and the Nova Versão Internacional (2000).
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
by Damião de Góis
Damião de Góis
Damiao de Góis , born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of Portugal...
in 1538. The Book of Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
was translated by Dom Pedro II
Pedro II of Brazil
Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...
, Emperor of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. For the most part, however, the Bible remained relatively untranslated to Portuguese. Services and Bible readings in the Church were conducted in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, which the common people of Portugal and Brazil did not understand.
It was not until 1748 that the first complete version of the Bible was published in Portuguese. This version was translated by João Ferreira de Almeida
João Ferreira de Almeida
João Ferreira Annes de Almeida was a Portuguese Protestant pastor; the eponymous Bible translation he began also goes by his name....
in 1628.
Background
Originally written in HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, the Holy Scriptures were unreadable by all except the most learned. Between the 2nd and 4th century AD the Christian faith and its Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. First came the Latin Bible, commissioned by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
and translated by St. Jerome. The fragmentation of the Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire was the western half of the Roman Empire after its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly referred to today as the Byzantine Empire....
into multiple smaller empires formed multiple Latin-derived languages including the Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
such as Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. The Bible, however, remained only in Latin and its original languages.
With the decline of Latin came the fight for Bibles in each language. In general, the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
opposed efforts to translate the Latin Vulgate to modern spoken languages. Reformers like John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached...
, Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
, William Tyndale
William Tyndale
William Tyndale was an English scholar and translator who became a leading figure in Protestant reformism towards the end of his life. He was influenced by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who made the Greek New Testament available in Europe, and by Martin Luther...
, and Casiodoro de Reina
Casiodoro de Reina
Casiodoro de Reina or de Reyna Casiodoro de Reina or de Reyna Casiodoro de Reina or de Reyna (born 1520 in Montemolín; died 15 March 1594 in Frankfurt am Main was a Lutheran theologian who (perhaps with several others) translated the Bible into Spanish.-Early life:...
are well known for translating the Bible into their own languages. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, Bibles were made in English, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and many other languages. Even so, it would be much later before the people of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
would have a Bible in their native tongue.
Counter Reformation
The Roman Catholic Church was extremely powerful in Portugal during the years of the Protestant ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. Due to the rebellion against the church in nearby countries, the Pope launched the Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
to strengthen the Church and increase its authority. João III, King of Portugal, established the Court of Inquisition
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of marriage with Maria of Aragon, but it was only after his death that the Pope...
in 1536, and from executions
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
were used on almost anyone that was supposedly “against the Church.” Due to this power, the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
was able to repress the Portuguese Bible from being developed during the Reformation, and Portugal remained almost completely Catholic.
During this time, some small-scale translating of the Bible was done in Portugal. Damião de Góis
Damião de Góis
Damiao de Góis , born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of Portugal...
translated the first published portion of the Bible into Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
in 1538. It was only the Book of Ecclesiastes, and was hardly ever used. Another fraction of the Bible was translated by Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and consisted only of the Book of Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
. For the most part, however, the Bible remained relatively untranslated to Portuguese. Services and Bible readings in the Church were conducted in Latin, which the common people of Portugal and Brazil did not understand.
João Ferreira de Almeida
It was not until 1748 that the first complete version of the Bible was published in Portuguese. This version was translated by João Ferreira de AlmeidaJoão Ferreira de Almeida
João Ferreira Annes de Almeida was a Portuguese Protestant pastor; the eponymous Bible translation he began also goes by his name....
, a man born in Torres de Tavares, Portugal in 1628. Little is known about Almeida. He was raised Catholic, but became a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
as a young adult. Around the same time, he moved to a Portuguese-speaking region of Malasia
Malásia
Malásia is the twelfth album by Brazilian singer and songwriter Djavan released in 1996.The album opens with the song "O Que foi My Love?", a jazz accelerated ending in the form of blues; "Sêca", which talks about the drought in northeastern jungle; "Nem Um Dia" biggest hit of the album on the...
, to work for the local Igreja Reformada Holandesa, or Dutch Reformed Church
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
. Two years later, at the age of 16, Almeida began translating the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
from Spanish to Portuguese.
In 1651, he became a chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
at the Presbitério da Batávia, in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
. There Almeida studied theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and edited the parts of the New Testament that he had previously translated. He also began to take a stand against the Catholic Church, which went on to impede him from preaching in Portuguese. The Inquisition also ordered some of his writings to be burned publicly. In 1663 he began studying Greek and Hebrew, which allowed him to better translate the Bible into Portuguese.
After finishing the translation of the New Testament, Almeida fought a long battle in order to get it published. He sent his texts to the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, but the process of publishing it took much longer than normal, due to resistance from the Church. Finally, in 1681, the Novo Testamento de Almeida (Almeida’s New Testament) was printed. However, this translation was laden with errors, and it took ten more years before it was ready for publication. During this time, de Almeida began translating the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. He died in 1691, and had translated Genesis through Ezequiel
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....
48:21. In 1694, his Old Testament was finished by a Dutch pastor, Jacobus op den Akker. It underwent many changes until it was finally published for the first time in 1748. The Old and New Testaments together became known as the Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida (João Ferreira de Almeida’s Translation).
Other translations
As the power of the Portuguese Inquisition weakened, it became easier to translate the Bible. Padre Antônio Pereira de Figueiredo, a reform-minded Roman Catholic Priest, was able to translate the Latin Vulgate into Portuguese. By 1790, the Old and New Testaments of the Versão de Figueiredo (Figueiredo’s Version) were published. This Bible is now considered less accurate than the Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida, due to its being translated from Latin rather than the original Hebrew and Greek. Right after Figueiredo’s version was published, however, it was more popular than its predecessor because it was written in modern Portuguese.After these two translations were published, a number of other versions followed, most of them simply revisions of Almeida’s text. In 1898, a commission of Brazilian translators edited the Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida to make it more understandable for those who spoke the Brazilian-dialect of Portuguese. It was called the Revista e Corrigida (Revised and Corrected). Another revision of Almeida’s translation, the Revista e Atualizada (Revised and Modernized), was made in 1956. The Versão dos Monges Beneditinos (Benedectine Monks’ Version) and the Versão dos Padres Capuchinhos (Capuchinho Priests’ Version) were separate translations made in 1959 and 1968, respectively.
The most commonly currently used translations are the second edition of the Revista e Atualizada (1993) and the Nova Versão Internacional (2000).