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.

David Bivin and his wife currently reside in a suburb of Jerusalem, Israel. His brother is Senior Warden of St. Thomas Anglican Church.

So far he has authored and co-authored the following books:

• Bivin, David New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus: Insights from His Jewish Context, Holland, MI: En-Gedi Resource Center, 2005.
• Bivin, David, Roy Blizzard, and Kazumitsu Kawai. Iesu wa heburaigo o hanashitaka. T?ky?: Mirutosu, 1999.
• Bivin, David, and Roy E. Blizzard. Comprendre les mots difficiles de Jésus : nouvelle compréhension à partir d'une perspective hébraïque. Montmeyran, France: Editions Emeth, 1999.
• Bivin, David, and Roy Blizzard. Was hat Jesus wirklich gesagt? : neue Einsichten aus einer hebräischen Perspektive. Erzhausen: Leuchter-Verl, 1997.
• Bivin, David, and Roy B. Blizzard Jr. Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 1994.
• Bivin, David, and Roy B. Blizzard Jr. Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, Austin, Tex.: Center for Judaic-Christian studies, 1984.
• Bivin, David, and Roy B. Blizzard Jr. Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, Arcadia, Calif: Makor Foundation, 1983.
• Goldfarb, Robert, and David Bivin. Fluent biblical and modern Hebrew. Jerusalem: The American Upland, 1977.
• Bivin, Josa, and David Bivin. Hebrew 40 : translations, units 1-40. Mount Zion, Israel: American Institute of Holy Land Studies, 1972.

Other publications have appeared in:

• "Evidence of an Editor's Hand in Two Instances of Mark's Account of Jesus' Last Week?" in Jesus' last week. Jerusalem studies in the Synoptic Gospels, v. 1. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
• Jerusalem perspective Online. Jerusalem, Israel: David Bivin, 1999-now.
• Jerusalem perspective : a monthly report on research into the words of Jesus. Jerusalem, Israel: David Bivin, 1987-1999.