Bible Harp (No Ads)

Offline, ad-free version of the Bible and Christian Harp, no web connection is required for reading (connection is only necessary if you want to listen to any Harp song).

For go to the Harpa index, open the application menu and select 'Harpa'.

This is the Almeida version, fully corrected and updated. If you liked the application, leave your comments and the note. The application will be constantly updated, so send your suggestion to [email protected].

About Almeida:

The translation made by João Ferreira de Almeida is considered a milestone in history of the Bible in Portuguese because it was the first translation of the New Testament from the original languages. Earlier it was supposed that there were versions of the Pentateuch translated from the Hebrew. According to these records, in 1642, at the age of 14, João Ferreira de Almeida would have left Portugal to live in Malacca (Malaysia). He had joined Protestantism from Catholicism and transferred with the aim of working in the native Dutch Reformed Church.

He already knew the Vulgate, as his uncle was a priest. After converting to Protestantism at age 14, Almeida left for Batavia. At age 16 he translated a summary of the gospels from Spanish into Portuguese, which was never published. In Malacca, he translated parts of the New Testament also from Spanish.

At 17, he translated the New Testament from Latin, from Theodore Beza's version, in addition to relying on the Italian, French and Spanish versions.

At the age of 35, he started translating from works written in the unique language, although it is a mystery how he learned these languages. He used as a basis the Masoretic Text for the Old Testament and a 1633 edition (by the Elzevir brothers) of the Textus Receptus. He also used translations of the time, such as the Castilian Reina-Valera. The translation of the New Testament was completed in 1676.

The text was sent to Holland for revision. The revision process lasted 5 years, being published in 1681, after more than a thousand changes had been made. The reason is that Dutch proofreaders wanted to bring the translation into line with the Dutch version published in 1637. The East India Company ordered the defective copies to be collected and destroyed. Those that were saved were corrected and used in Protestant churches in the East, one of which is on display in the British Museum.

Almeida himself revised the text for ten years, and it was published after his death in 1693. While revising, he was also working on the Old Testament. The Pentateuch was completed in 1683. There is a translation of the Psalms that was published in 1695, annexed to the Book of Common Prayer, anonymous, but attributed to Almeida. Almeida managed to translate up to Ezekiel 48:12 in 1691, the year of his death, and Jacobus op den Akker completed the translation in 1694.

The complete translation, after many revisions, was published in two volumes, one 1748 , revised by den Akker himself and by Christopher Theodosius Walther, and another in 1753. In 1819, the British and Foreign Bible Society publishes a 3rd edition of the complete Bible, in one volume.

There are also printed editions in the Danish colony of Tranquebar, dating from 1719 to 1765. These are partial editions of the Bible, which were obtained as the proofreaders finished their work.