Authors: David Bivin and Roy Blizzard, Jr.
Format: Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Treasure House; Revised edition (October 1, 1994)
ISBN-10: 156043550X
ISBN-13: 978-1560435501
I first read Bivin’s and Blizzard’s book just over 10 years ago. I know this for a fact, because I found a card in my copy of the book from a course I had taken in March 1999. What rekindled my interest in the book was an email exchange I had recently with someone who met Dr. Blizzard 30 years ago or more. The mention of Dr. Blizzard’s name stirred my vague memories of his book (I remembered I thought it was good but couldn’t recall the exact content) and I realized that it was time to read it again. I’m glad I did. In the past 10 years, I’ve been progressing with my studies and my spiritual growth, and I am now able to see this text in a more “mature” light. Reading the book again made me realize that this text has something to say both to the mature Messianic believer and to someone just starting down this path.
The book’s subtitle “New Insights from a Hebraic Perspective” certainly reveals the core intent of Bivin and Blizzard in writing this book. The “difficult words of Jesus” are only difficult if taken out of their 1st Century Hebrew language (and thought) context. As I’m sure most people reading this article know, the Gospels and Epistles were originally written in Koine Greek, or the “common man’s” form of the Greek language used during the day of the Apostles. These works written in Koine Greek would reach the largest audience in the then-civilized world. However, it wasn’t necessarily the ideal language for expressing the thoughts, ideas, and observations of the writers of the Synoptic Gospels, who were all Jewish and all native Hebrew speakers.
Yes, all of the Synoptic Gospels were very likely dictated to native Greek speaking scribes, but the Jewish Israeli people dictating (or perhaps writing the originals in Hebrew and having them then translated into Greek) were using words, syntax, and idiom that were completely 1st Century Hebrew. That is the point of the authors of this book. The message they deliver is that, when we read our English Bibles, we are reading text that was translated from 1st Century Koine Greek into 21st Century English, as if the Gospel writers were native 1st Century Greek speakers. Without taking into account that the Gospels are (in essence) translated from Hebrew to Greek and then from Greek into English (or sometimes from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English), we are going to misunderstand what the Gospel writers are trying to communicate and worse, what Jesus (Yeshua) was/is trying to communicate. This isn’t a casual point for believers who hinge their understanding of their faith on their understanding of their Messiah and Savior.
I felt refreshed as I started to read the Bivin/Blizzard book, because it reminded me of one of the sources of what I often teach: that Jesus can’t be understood without understanding the Tanakh (Torah-Nevaim/Prophets-Ketuvim/Writings) or Old Testament, or without understanding the Hebraic context of the Gospel writers. That context is the world of 1st Century Jews living in an Israel occupied by the Roman Empire; an Israel where the Jews were longing for deliverance from their oppressors; an Israel longing for their Messiah. Another part of the context is the understanding of how Jewish Rabbis teach. While it’s right and proper to understand the Jesus is Lord and Savior, he is also Messiah and Rabbi. He taught like a Rabbi. He was also a Prophet and he spoke in parable and used allegory like a Prophet. A grounding in Rabbinical teaching goes a long way to helping the serious Bible student understand the words of Jesus (or Paul for that matter).
Including the extremely important Appendix (I’ll get to that in a minute), the book only weighs in at a scant 160 pages, which is quite a bargain in terms of learning the basics of Rabbinical teachings. In fact, the main body of the book is only 79 pages, so you’d imagine being able to read this book in an afternoon. The “lack” of pages is somewhat misleading though. If you really want to understand what the book says about understanding Jesus, you’ll want to slow down and take your time. This book isn’t written like a popular “page-turner” novel.
Like many scholarly works, Bivin and Blizzard make extensive use of footnotes. However, the footnotes point the reader to detailed commentary in the Appendix, regarding the main body of text. By the time I’d read just 5 pages from the first chapter (the Introduction), I had read 11 pages in the Appendix notes. For instance, the book made a statement in the main body about some “saying” of Jesus that, on the surface, was difficult, if not impossible to understand in the plain English (and the book uses the King James Version of the Bible for its Gospel examples). A footnote associated with that “difficult saying” lead me to a specific part of the Appendix where an explanation of that saying, sometimes 5 or more pages long, was waiting for my consideration and consumption, before returning me to the main body of the book. It is very important not to neglect the notes in the Appendix, since they contain the linguistic and Biblical information required to understand the original intent of the Gospel authors.
That’s the only seeming “difficulty” to this book; toggling back and forth between the front and back of the text to get a complete understanding of the points being made by the authors. I found it easier just to use two bookmarks to keep my place as I shifted between the body and Appendix. If you intend to reference each of the teachings of Jesus to comprehend their original meaning, you’ll also probably want to keep a pad of paper and a pencil handy. Having your Bible at your side wouldn’t hurt either, since the authors often end up re-translating the text to fit the original Hebrew context, and the wording can be significantly different than most Gospel readers are used to.
Bivin’s and Blizzard’s book also goes a long way to solve another mystery. They mention that the Gospels seem a lot more difficult for many people to understand than the letters of Paul, though both certainly shared the same cultural, national, and linguistic context. I recall that David Rudel said in his book The Gospel You’ve Never Heard, that he initially found it difficult to reconcile the message of the Gospels with the writings of Paul. Bivin and Blizzard address this point themselves, indicating that the way Yeshua’s teachings were expressed was not easily, or in some cases, even correctly recorded, as they were translated and re-translated from one language to another across history.
I mentioned that this is a scholarly work and that quite a bit of shuffling back and forth between main text and Appendix may seem awkward at times, however the writing style and content presentation are easily accessible to most readers. You won’t find yourself longing for a doctorate degree in Theology just to try and understand what Bivin and Blizzard are relating. That said, I can confidently recommend this book to scholar and layperson alike. Anyone honestly seeking the meaning of the Master’s teachings will find a good tutor with this text.
Although the book was published originally in 1994, it doesn’t show its age. Of course, works on Bible interpretation often stand the test of time, since the Bible itself in its wisdom (God’s wisdom) is timeless. The Gospel picture this book paints may not seem as familiar as the one you’re used to. You’ll (metaphorically speaking) need to put a tallit on Yeshua and keep his tzitzit in focus as you “listen” to him teach. Remember, this is a 1st Century Jewish Rabbi talking, so his “classroom” bears virtually no similarity to the “Sunday school” where you may have first learned his words.
Whether you are a Messianic believer exploring the Hebraic nature of your faith, or an Evangelical Christian trying to take your understanding of the Savior’s teaching to the next level, you will find a good companion to your studies in the book, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus: New Insights from a Hebraic Perspective. Pick up a copy, sit down at the feet of the Rabbi, and come under his guidance and tutelage. Your eyes will be opened.