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An Account of the Work on the
Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version

The Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version is the culmination of over twenty years of labor by brothers and sisters from Brazil, Portugal, and the United States. It is a work that was established by Brother Witness Lee and that continues Living Stream Ministry’s long-standing burden to provide an improved translation of the New Testament into major languages along with the extensive body of outlines, footnotes, and cross references that Brother Lee provided for the revised Chinese (1987) and English (1991) versions. As the work on the Chinese New Testament Recovery Version neared completion, Brother Lee met with a number of Recovery Version teams in 1986 to fellowship about the need for this work to expand into a number of languages, particularly Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese. Following that time of fellowship, Living Stream Ministry invited two brothers from Brazil to come to the United States in 1988 to work full-time on the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version. These brothers were particularly suited to the task because of their command of Greek, English, Chinese (one of the brothers), and, of course, Portuguese. Also, and very importantly, they were mature in the church life and equipped in the truths of the Lord’s recovery, which had been handed down to us in the ministry of Brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Hence, in early 1988 they joined the English and Spanish teams in Irving, Texas, and each team worked on the Recovery Version in their respective languages. Our brothers from Brazil blended well with the serving ones at LSM for the work on the Recovery Version and surely entered into the way of translation that has been adopted by LSM. After about a year of labor in the United States, the brothers from Brazil felt that they needed to return home, and LSM agreed that the work could be continued in Brazil. LSM continued to help the brothers in their work both financially for some time and in editorial and typesetting support through 2005. For the next ten years the brothers labored in Brazil as their time permitted, and in 1999 LSM published the four Gospels in Portuguese (Os Evangelhos, Versão Restauração). By July 2004 the book of Acts had been translated into Portuguese by the brothers in Brazil, and the typesetting of Acts was completed in Anaheim in January 2005. Thus, about forty-five percent of the entire New Testament (by page count) had been done under this arrangement from early 1988 to early 2005 (seventeen years). Understanding that the brothers in Brazil had limited time to work on the Portuguese New Testament, LSM began to fellowship with the leading co-workers in Brazil and with many of the co-workers in North America in 2005-2006 about this work, and all parties agreed that this important work should be moved to LSM’s editorial offices in Anaheim, California, and that full-time resource should be given to complete the task. The two original brothers involved in this work were invited to come to Anaheim to continue their work with LSM’s full support, but one of the brothers declined the offer for personal reasons, and the other brother took exception with LSM on other publication matters and became quite vocal against LSM. This made it impossible for LSM to maintain its offer to him, and in August 2005 the offer was retracted. However, the brothers from Brazil did send LSM all electronic copies of their work, and this became the basis of the final work on the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version. LSM is certainly grateful for this work, and we view it as part of the Lord’s provision for the completion of the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version.

Normally, the work on a New Testament Recovery Version takes about five years to complete, as evidenced by similar undertakings in Russian, Spanish, Malaysian, Korean, and French (which were all translated from the original Greek). But because about forty percent of the New Testament verses and all the footnotes for the entire New Testament had already been translated into Portuguese, LSM estimated that the work could be finished in about two years. Without the previous work of the brothers in Brazil, it would not have been possible to complete the work in the actual two years and twenty-four days that it took. The fact that LSM could complete this work in just under twenty-five months indicates that the greater amount of this work was done in Brazil by our brothers there. LSM is certainly grateful for this and is happy to have supported the brothers in their labors for all those years. We also expect that the Portuguese-speaking saints everywhere will share in that gratitude and appreciation.

However, a team was now needed to complete what the brothers in Brazil had started, and through the Lord’s arrangement six saints became available, three brothers and three sisters. Three of the saints were Brazilian Portuguese native speakers (two who moved from Brazil for this work and one who had been living in the United States for some years). Two had previously served in the publication work in Brazil for years before this project, and one of the brothers resumed his service in the publication work for Brazil after the project. The three other saints were European Portuguese native speakers (who moved from Portugal for this work). All these serving ones were well-educated or trained for their respective functions on the project. Two served as the text translation team, two as the footnote translation team, one for computer layout and typesetting, and one as a project coordinator. We sincerely believe that this team was the Lord’s arrangement, as evidenced both by the grace that they enjoyed to finish the work in just 25 months and by the product that came from their labor. Further, we believe that the same Spirit who operated in the brothers in Brazil to do the first part of this work operated in the saints in Anaheim to complete this work, and we hope that no one will speak against the Spirit’s operation in either group of saints (as some may be inclined to do), for the work of both groups was surely blended by the Lord into one work for His recovery.

The work in Anaheim on the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version commenced on 17 July 2006. A generous donation to LSM for this project (again, evidence of the Lord’s hand) allowed us to provision a suite of offices with desks, computers, printers, and other office equipment, and the serving ones on this project for the most part sequestered themselves for the two years to complete the work. Our feeling at LSM, including those on the newly-formed team, was that the initial work done by the brothers in Brazil was done well and should become the base of the final product. Hence, the team used the work that had been passed on to them as much as possible. They did, however, carefully check what had been done to make sure that everything was as accurate to the original Greek as possible and constantly consulted the standard Portuguese version, including the Brazilian translation João Ferreira de Almeida, Revista e Atualizada (2nd edition, 1993 Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil). Thus, in every way it must be said that this work was a blending of the labor of the brothers in Brazil and the saints in Anaheim. However, in the end LSM had the final editorial say on every word in both the text and the footnotes and bears full responsibility for the integrity of the work overall. LSM has the full assurance that the Portuguese New Testament fully matches the Recovery Version in other languages. Throughout the project the usual editorial oversight and involvement by LSM's editorial section was exercised, and at the appropriate points in the project detailed checks of specifics in the New Testament were made by LSM's editorial section. We can say assuredly that the team had but one heart in this matter—to bring the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version as close to the Greek text and to the Chinese and English New Testament Recovery Versions as practicable—and LSM's editorial section is fully persuaded of the high quality of this translation of the text and footnotes.

When the translation and editing work was completed in mid-January 2008, LSM's typesetting section began the first stage of typesetting. This was completed on 4 April 2008. The book was laid out in 1,322 pages, plus eight pages of charts and maps at the end. On 14 April 2008 a two-week round of proofreading commenced in Brazil. LSM does three proofreadings (galley, page, and final) of all its work, and the proofreading stages of the Recovery Versions, when done directly by LSM, are very specifically designed and executed. These proofreading rounds have been developed over the years since 1991, when we first proofread the English New Testament Recovery Version, and now are guided by a 55-page manual of detailed instructions for the three rounds. The entire Anaheim team went to Brazil for this time, and thirty-seven saints from Brazil gathered in a hotel in Campos do Jordão (meaning the fields of Jordan) to complete the first round of proofreading (galley). After that round was completed on 26 April 2008, all the corrections were brought back to Anaheim, and LSM's typesetting section incorporated them into the next round of typesetting (page), which was completed on 7 July 2008. On 14 July 2008 a four-week period of proofreading commenced in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. Again, the entire team went down to Brazil for the proofreading. They were joined by thirty-nine saints from Brazil, Portugal, the UK, France, and the United States, some of whom had participated in April. In all, seventy different saints served on proofreading in the two sessions. The page and final proofreading stages were completed in Brazil on 9 August 2008. Thus, the work to complete the translation, editing, typesetting, and proofreading of the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version lasted two years and twenty-four days, very close to our original estimate of two years. In all, including the work by the brothers in Brazil, the work on the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version took about twenty years.

On 25 August 2008 final print files were sent to a printer in England, and an initial delivery of books was made available at the winter training in Anaheim in December 2008. The rest of the books were delivered to Brazil, Portugal, and Anaheim around 15 January 2009 and began to be distributed widely.

We at LSM are grateful to the Lord for His operation within the saints who participated in this work—those in Brazil who first translated, those in Anaheim who completed the work, those who proofread, those who donated, and especially those many who prayed. Throughout the duration of the project we all experienced the Lord's grace for the completion of this work, and the gracious help by all the parties involved give us further confidence that the Lord desires this publication of the Portuguese New Testament Recovery Version. We are so happy that now this monumental work is in the hands of the Portuguese-speaking saints everywhere, and we look to the Lord for a way to distribute this work even more widely among all the Lord's seekers and lovers who speak Portuguese throughout the earth.

Editorial section, Living Stream Ministry
Anaheim, California, U.S.A