By Harold Gilmer, Executive Vice-President of TBS (Brazil)

Inventions are usually born out of a need, and this was the case in the starting of the Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil on 7 June 1968. But we must go back a couple of years to understand what led to this need.

In the year of 1966 the General Secretary of the Brazilian Bible Society met in Europe with five priests, who proposed a joint revision of the Bible, unifying the translation for both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals (as the non-Roman Catholics are referred to in Brazil). This volume would naturally contain the Apocrypha for the Roman Catholics. The priests suggested starting their own Bible Society just in case the Brazilian Bible Society would not comply with their wishes. The General Secretary brought their proposal before the thirteen-member board—twelve considered the proposal as being of the Lord, but one member opposed: the Rev. Synesio Lyra (who was the pastor of the oldest evangelical church in Brazil: the Fluminense Congregational Church in Rio de Janeiro). He wrote an open letter criticising the proposal, calling it ‘childish’.

That same year, the Rev. Thomas L. Gilmer arrived in Brazil as a missionary, along with his wife Linda and two-month-old daughter. The Rev. Gilmer was a missionary through the International Board of Jewish Missions, but was also a representative for Pastor Don Frazier, father of the Bearing Precious Seed movement, which supplied copies of the Bible or Bible portions to missionaries. On behalf of Pastor Frazier, the Rev. Gilmer requested permission from the Brazilian Bible Society to print fifty thousand copies of the Almeida Revista e Corrigida (Almeida Revised and Corrected—ARC) edition of the Portuguese Bible. The request was denied with a statement that the ARC would be phased out and replaced with another revision of the Atualizada (Updated), which would also eventually be replaced by an edition produced with the Catholics that would include the Apocrypha.

A request made to JUERP (the publishing arm of the Brazilian Baptist Convention) was also denied, with a statement that JUERP was working on a new revision of the Bible based on eclectic Greek texts, which would replace the ARC. These two groups, the JUERP and the Brazilian Bible Society, printed the same edition with a few almost imperceptible differences. Both claimed to have copyrights on the ARC, and both said no permission would be granted for anyone else to print the João Ferreira de Almeida translation. However, Dr Silas Evangelista de Oliveira, an outstanding lawyer, fully researched the claims of the two organisations and found that neither had such copyrights. Missionary Robert C. Collins said that he had heard that at some time in the past the Trinitarian Bible Society of London, England, had printed the Almeida translation of the Bible.

These two pieces of information surprised some conservative pastors and missionaries in Brazil. In a meeting held to discuss these matters, it was mentioned that the Trinitarian Bible Society had indeed published the Portuguese Bible in the past. (According to records, the last edition of the Portuguese Bible was in 1948, the same year that the Brazilian Bible Society was founded.) It was decided that the Rev. Gilmer would contact TBS requesting permission to publish the Portuguese Bible.

The Rev. Gilmer wrote to the Rev. T. H. Brown (then TBS General Secretary), who informed him that TBS had an edition of the Portuguese New Testament that needed orthographic revision which they would send, and also provide a copy of the Old Testament for revision. Permission was granted for the organising of the new Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil, who would have copyright on the Portuguese Bible, as would the TBS based in London. It was understood at that time that TBS (Brazil) and TBS (UK) would pursue further partnerships in distributing the Portuguese Bible.

Thus, on 7 June 1968 the Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil was founded, having the Rev. Synesio Lyra as the first president. Along with him, the Rev. Thomas L. Gilmer, Dr Silas de Oliveira, the Rev. Robert Collins, the Rev. Armando Pinto de Oliveira, the Rev. William Le Roy, and the Rev. Walter Reichen comprised the first board of TBS (Brazil). 

Revision of the Portuguese New Testament began immediately. The board came together for the first revision meeting, each with his own copy of the Greek New Testament. To their surprise, their Greek New Testaments differed from one another! While all were the Nestlé Aland Greek Critical Texts, they were printed in different years, and had suffered changes. The TBS in London furnished the board members with copies of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament. The Textus Receptus was the basis for the original Almeida Portuguese translation as with other Reformation Age translations including Luther’s German Bible and the Authorised (King James) Version in English. The TBS also provided copies of the Old Testament Hebrew Masoretic text. 

Following this, expert linguistic Portuguese professors, volunteers, and some paid revisers worked diligently to assure that all orthographic changes were made, as demanded by authorities of all the Portuguese-speaking countries. Meanwhile, Hebrew and Greek scholars diligently verified the excellent translation of Almeida.

The first revision of the Portuguese New Testament was completed and sent to London by ship, but the revision was lost at sea. This being the only copy, revision commenced again. The Gospel according to John was completed first, and this edition was adopted by the Pocket Testament League of Brazil. The New Testament was published five years later in 1973. Gideons International were the first partners to adopt the Portuguese New Testament, along with Psalms and Proverbs in 1982. The complete Portuguese Bible was published in 1994.

According to the Rev. Thomas L. Gilmer (one of the founders and current president of the Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil), ‘The reason that the Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil was started was to ensure the continuity of publication of the Holy Bible, translated by João Ferreira de Almeida. The fact is that some wanted to change Almeida (and had already made some changes). We set out to verify Almeida’s text, to place it in the current spelling and with fidelity (to the Hebrew and Greek texts he used), so we ended up calling the text Almeida Corrigida Fiel (ACF)’. Almeida Corrigida Fiel means ‘Almeida Corrected Faithful’. It bears the name Faithful, for it seeks to be faithful to the same Greek and Hebrew texts that Almeida used in his translation of the Portuguese Bible.

The Almeida Portuguese Bible was actually the first foreign language Bible that the Trinitarian Bible Society edited and corrected after it was founded in 1831. Almeida completed the translation of the Portuguese New Testament in 1691 (the second edition of 1693 is the one he approved) in Jakarta, Indonesia, with the help of the Dutch Reformed Church. He passed away before completing the translation of the Old Testament, having translated up to Ezekiel 48.31. The Rev. Jacobus op den Akker completed the translation, which was published in separate volumes. According to our records, the first edition of the complete Portuguese Bible was not published until 1819 (we have a copy of that Bible in our library here in Brazil). The first revision of the Portuguese Bible by the Trinitarian Bible Society began in 1837 under the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Boys of Trinity College, Cambridge. The work was completed in 1844 and the Bible printed in London in 1847.

The Almeida Corrigida Fiel (ACF) published today remains faithful to the same Biblical texts and translation principles as the original edition, but is in current Portuguese, revised according to the new orthographic agreement, and is suitable for all Portuguese-speaking countries. By God’s grace, since TBS (Brazil) was founded in 1968, more than ten million complete Bibles and almost two hundred million New Testaments have been distributed through our partnerships. That’s not counting the more than twenty-four million ACF readers on Bible apps. The ACF can be found in all major bookstores in all of Brazil and every Portuguese-speaking country in the world. We are endeavoring to establish further outlets in every Portuguese-speaking country in the world. All of this for the glory of God!

Brazilian directors and staff

All our directors must be financially independent enough to give one day, or more, each month, if necessary, to help. A pastor whose church is willing to release him to help is considered financially independent enough to be a director. Our paid staff of six people is indeed a skeleton crew. Our President and Executive Vice President are both missionaries supported by their contributing churches.

Our mission: A copy of the Faithful Bible for each person

Why do we do what we do? Looking in the rearview mirror of time, we see the little girl, Mary Jones, longing for her own copy of God’s Word in her own language— Welsh. It was contemplating this reflection in the mirror of time that we established a clear mission: a copy of the Faithful Portuguese Bible for each person. This clear mission is guiding all that we do, and everything we produce now is keeping in mind ‘who’ will be reading that Bible. Because of that, we’ve made our Bibles even more legible, focusing on each age group and their particular needs (from children to senior citizens, with a wide range of Bible sizes, settings, and bindings).

Once we have completed our mission (that is, each person having their own copy of the Faithful Bible), we must continue our work to fulfill our primary purpose, which is the glory of God and the salvation of men; like Philip with the eunuch: ‘Understandest thou what thou readest?’ (Acts 8.30). Note that the eunuch had his own copy of the Holy Scriptures. That’s why we do what we do.

1. All our translations and revisions are done directly from the original languages (Hebrew Masoretic and Greek Textus Receptus), using formal equivalence translation methods.
2. We supply Bibles, New Testaments, and Biblical portions at an affordable price so that all may sow the Faithful Word of God.
3. All that we produce is made with each person in mind. Everyone needs a Bible to call their own.
4. We produce articles and hold conferences with the aim of strengthening faith in the Word of God, and challenging people to become translators of the Holy Scriptures.