Born in Nassau, Bisterfeld studied at Heidelberg and in the Netherlands. He became the son-in-law of Johann Heinrich Alsted. From 1629 he was active as Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia) in Transylvania.
Bisterfeld maintained cordial relations with Comenius, and like the latter made an attempt to work up a pansophical encyclopaedic work (the Alphabetum philosophicum). He became famous for his anti-Socinian tract De christionorum uno Deo Patre, Filio et Spiritu sancto (Leiden 1638).