Eugene Peterson, born in East Stanwood, Washington in 1932, is an author and former college professor and pastor. He is a graduate of the Biblical Theological Seminary in New York (now New York Theological Seminary) and holds a Master's degree in Semitic Languages from Johns Hopkins University. In 1962 he became the organizing pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Bel Air, Maryland where he pastored for several decades. After retiring from Christ Our King, Peterson taught for five years at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He then retired to the state of Montana where he had grown up and where he continues to write. He is especially well-known for his paraphrase of the Bible from the original languages, The Message:The New Testament in Contemporary Language.