'The Message' Bible Translator Eugene Peterson Dies

The Christian author behind The Message Bible translation has died.

Eugene Peterson passed away after being admitted into hospice care one week ago. According to his son, the 85-year-old had been in declining health.

Peterson wrote at least 35 books in his lifetime, and Relevant Magazine named him "one of the most recognized Bible scholars in America."

Peterson says writing The Message translation was a 20-year process, working from the original Greek and Hebrew texts to guarantee authenticity. He received the prestigious ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award for his work on it.

The Message was a version of the Bible that reached people in a new way.

U2 lead singer Bono became a fan of The Message, saying, "There's a translation of the Scripture that this guy Eugene Peterson has undertaken. It has been a great strength to me. He's a poet and a scholar, and he's brought the text back to the tone in which the books were written."

Peterson was an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), founding Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Maryland where he pastored for three decades.

"The Message grew from the soil of forty years of pastoral work," Peterson said. "If there is anything distinctive about The Message, perhaps it is because the text is shaped by the hand of a working pastor. For most of my adult life I have been given a primary responsibility for getting the message of the Bible into the lives of the men and women with whom I worked."

Peterson lived with his wife, Jan, in Montana. The couple had three children and six grandchildren.

BELOW: You can hear more about his story in this documentary, "Peterson: In Between The Man and The Message":