[1] He was a Protestant pastor educated in the Dutch Reformed tradition, worked with Reformed churches in Java (at the time a Dutch colony; modern-day Indonesia), and also preached in Goa on the Indian subcontinent (at the time a Portuguese colony, now part of India).
Little is known about his life; the majority of facts come from the preface of his Portuguese translation of a Spanish booklet entitled "Differença d'a Christandade".
His work is the source of many Bible versions, like the Edição Revista e Corrigida (Revised and Corrected Edition, published in 1948, is an update of other editions), the Edição Revista e Atualizada (Revised and Updated Edition, most based in newer manuscripts), published by Brazilian Bible Society and Portuguese Bible Society, Almeida Corrigida e Fiel (Almeida Corrected and Faithful), by Trinitarian Bible Society of Brazil, and Edição Contemporânea de Almeida (Almeida's Contemporary Edition), by Editora Vida.
In 2015, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints published its own edition of the Bible in Portuguese based on Ferreira de Almeida's translation.
[3] The main principle of translation used by Ferreira de Almeida was that of formal equivalence (following the syntax of the original text in the target language), and he utilized the Textus Receptus as a textual basis.