The first New Testament translated into Portuguese which was approved by the Roman Catholic Church. It is the Pereira version of the Portuguese Bible, as it was translated from the Latin Vulgate by the Catholic priest Antonio Pereira de Figueiredo. It was published as a whole in seven volumes in 1770 after appearing in installments beginning 1778.

The true first complete translation of the Bible into Portuguese was composed from the mid-seventeenth century, in specific regions of Southeast Asia under the domination of the Dutch East India Company. The individual responsible for its elaboration process was Joao Ferreira Annes d’Almida (c. 1628-1691), a native of the Kingdom of Portugal, but resident among the Dutch since his youth.

A first edition of his New Testament translation was printed in Amsterdam in the year 1681, in the passage that the books of the Old Testament were published from the 18th century onwards in the Tranquebar and Batavia.