Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bronze Bow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love vs. Vengeance
Trust, Dependence, and Friendship
Leadership: Power vs. Service
Earthly Hopes vs. Heavenly Values
Summary
Analysis
Daniel starts going to Capernaum to listen to Jesus’s preaching. This makes village life feel less burdensome to him; in fact, it becomes one of the happiest times in his life. At first, he goes just to humor Joel, but he quickly finds that Jesus’s puzzling words stay in his mind, and he feels drawn back. Soon, he’s getting up before dawn every morning and walking three miles to join the crowd gathered beside the lake. Sometimes he visits Simon’s house at Bethsaida in the evenings, too.
Daniel takes an interest in Jesus’s teaching. At a time in his life where he doesn’t feel that he fits in anywhere, somehow he feels a sense of belonging while listening to Jesus’s puzzling sermons, blending into the odd crowd that flocks around him.
Themes
Over meals, Daniel tells Leah stories from his time with Jesus. Even though Leah has scarcely ventured outside their house, Daniel tries to help her see the outside world: the lake at sunrise, the boats heaped with newly caught fish, the fishermen and their wives and the merchants and traders. Jesus stands on the shore and talks to all of them. Beggars and disabled people join the crowd, as well as curious onlookers.
Leah feels drawn to Jesus, too. The outside world is foreign to her, but something about his teachings, and the kind of people he draws to him, feel welcoming to her.
Themes
Daniel tries to remember Jesus’s stories for Leah. Sometimes it’s easy because of the vivid images, like a Samaritan helping an injured traveler whom the Jewish priests passed by. As Daniel walks home from the morning teaching, he finds it easy to believe that God’s kingdom is near. The nighttime visits are often sadder, though. At Simon’s house, weary laborers, the hungry, and the sick pack together and fight over bread. After these nights, Daniel feels depressed by the human misery he’s seen, and he finds it hard to believe that deliverance could be near.
Daniel mentions the story famously known as the parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke, in which a hated Samaritan is a better neighbor than an observant Jew. Daniel still thinks of God’s kingdom largely in terms of human power and victory. He can’t square that with the weak outcasts whom Jesus tends to gather around him.
Themes
Leah often demands, in detail, the story of a little girl who was healed. On this occasion, Daniel was standing with the crowd on the shore when a man suddenly pushed to the front. The people recognized him as Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers. Everyone jumped out of the way, intimidated, then watched in shock as Jairus knelt humbly before Jesus and begged the preacher to help his dying daughter, his only child. The whole crowd followed Jesus to Jairus’s house. When they got there, the women of the house were wailing; the little girl was already dead.
The story of the healing of Jairus’s daughter appears in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. The novel puts Daniel among the curious crowd who followed Jesus to the synagogue ruler’s house to see what would happen. To put it mildly, a synagogue ruler would not be expected to beg Jesus for anything. He would more likely side with those religious leaders who mistrusted and rejected Jesus.
Themes
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Daniel went on to tell Leah that although the crowd jeered at Jesus, he took a few of his closest disciples, went into the house, and into the child’s room. He confidently took the little girl’s hand and said to her, “Little girl, get up.” Immediately the little girl got out of bed and walked. Jesus told her family to give her something to eat, then quietly left. The story always delights Leah. Daniel remains puzzled by it, however. To this day, Jesus and the disciples keep the story very quiet.
In the Gospel accounts, the crowd is barred from the house while Jesus heals Jairus’s daughter. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus often encounters people in private and cautions his disciples not to talk about his miraculous healings, wanting to avoid disruption to his mission. Leah seems to identify with the little girl in need of Jesus’s healing.
Themes
Leah wonders if Jesus will ever come to Ketzah and if there will be big crowds. The thought seems to disturb her. Then she asks Daniel if children ever come to see Jesus, and if the children ever get hurt among the crowds. Daniel assures her that they don’t. In fact, Jesus won’t let anyone send the children away. He loves to talk to the children, find out their names, and listen to them. It angers some of the men in the crowd.
Though Leah is drawn to Jesus, she is still hindered by her fear of the outside world. Daniel reassures Leah that Jesus cares especially for the most vulnerable. He takes the time to listen to those whom “important” people dismiss and overlook. Jesus’s approach also differs starkly from Rosh’s approach, which mostly sees people as objects to be used.
Themes
Daniel feels hopeful about Leah these days. Thacia’s visits have opened up her world. One day, he even caught Leah staring wistfully into a hand mirror that Thacia had given her. Sometimes she seems to be lost in daydreams, as if listening for something. Daniel feels a bit uneasy about it, but he attributes it to how little he understands girls.
Leah’s wistful distraction hints that there’s more going on with her than Daniel suspects. In any case, contact with the outside world has obviously helped Leah. Because of others’ kindness, she is becoming more hopeful and less fearful.
Themes
These days Daniel also takes growing satisfaction in his blacksmithing skill. He even begins to experiment. One day when he doesn’t have much business, Daniel heats a spare piece of bronze in his forge. After beating the bronze into a fine piece of wire, he heats it again and carefully twists the wire into the shape of a bow. Then he fits a bronze pin into the bronze bow, making a brooch, like the kind that city people sometimes fasten their cloaks with. He hides the brooch, feeling both proud and embarrassed. He thinks of Jesus and wonders if Jesus is the one who can “bend the bow of bronze.”
Daniel’s life in the village isn’t all a burden. Besides giving him a means of providing for Leah and himself, Daniel’s shop gives him a way to develop his talent and express himself. He gravitates to the imagery of the bronze bow, symbol of God’s victory. He still conflates Jesus’s mission with Rosh’s mission, not yet considering that their goals might be distinct.
Themes
