Eugene H. Peterson

Eugene Peterson & The Message Bible

• Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College.
• BA (Seattle Pacific)
• STB (New York Theological Seminary)
• MA (Johns Hopkins)
• DHL (Hon.) (Seattle Pacific)

Eugene Peterson was born on November 6th, 1932 in East Stanwood, Washington. He received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Seattle Pacific University and his Bachelor in Sacred Theology from the New York Theological Seminary. His postgraduate Master of Arts in Semitic languages was obtained from John Hopkins University.

For twenty nine years, Eugene Peterson was a pastor at Christ our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. In 1991 he joined Regent College; an international graduate school of Christian Studies in Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed The Message Bible in 2002; after twelve years of diligent labour. At Regent College he was the Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology until his retirement in 2006.

In his own words, Eugene Peterson explained why The Message Bible was and is needed,
"While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become 'old hat.'"(i)