David Bivin


David N. Bivin is an Israeli-American biblical scholar, member of the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research and author of New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus: Insights from His Jewish Context. His role at the Jerusalem School involves publishing the journal Jerusalem Perspective and organizing seminars.

Career

He is well known among lay readers for his co-authored book Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights from a Hebraic Perspective and his book New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus
Bivin's second major work, New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus: Insights from His Jewish Context, shares a similar title with his first book, but reflects 20 more years of scholarship and is substantially different in content. Rather than focusing on language issues, it examines Jesus' teachings within their first-century Jewish context. Marvin Wilson, Professor, Gordon College, calls it "a valuable resource for every serious student of Scripture." The book includes much content initially published in the journal Jerusalem Perspective.

Methodology

Bivin's work sometimes involves taking a Greek phrase from the Bible, attempting to uncover what the underlying Hebrew idiom would have been, and then translating and interpreting the idiom, in other words relating a Greek text to its Hebrew equivalent, then translating it to English.

Family

David Bivin immigrated to Israel in 1963. Bivin served as a sergeant in an Israeli army reserve infantry unit from 1974 to 1991. He and his wife currently reside in a suburb of Jerusalem, Israel.

Works

Books