Eugene H. Peterson was a pastor, scholar, author, and poet. For many years he was James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also served as founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. He had written over thirty books, including Gold Medallion Book Award winner The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language a contemporary translation of the Bible. After retiring from full-time teaching, Eugene and his wife Jan lived in the Big Sky Country of rural Montana. He died in October 2018.
Just finished reading Matthew, so grateful for what Jesus did and the stories about his life. I like reading the Message version, read it for yourself.
What a great novelisation! Back to almost the basics, getting rid of tempered verses that Matthew certainly never written himself and the chapters end with an almost poetic cadence. Jesus was way cool, and it’s funny how the Christian community making news today has major Pharisee energy, only giving his words more edge and credit. His character really shines through the paraphrased ancient Greek; completely logical and sound on another plane, almost speaking entirely about the future while communing with ageless characters and beings when alone. Then how he’s treated by literally everyone else is hilarious and it’s like no wonder, honestly. I also love how his character is totally fed up with with his disciples which leads being fed up with humanity by the end of it, not much emphasis was noted about that growing up. In the end he gave them the words but, it turns out humanity is really heard of hearing. *Pours one out for the realest*