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 walks to Bethsaida in the rain after work, but when he reaches Simon bar Jonas’s house, he is annoyed—Simon the Zealot tells him that Jesus already knows he’s in danger. He appreciates the warning, but Jesus is too busy to see him now. Daniel waits in the courtyard for a long time, yearning for a single word from Jesus. He feels it would give him strength to go on.
Daniel fulfills his promise to Joel, but the warning isn’t needed. Jesus is well aware of the hatred and plots against himself. However, this isn’t really what’s brought Daniel. He suspects Jesus himself is the answer to what’s now missing in his life.
Themes
Even when Jesus retreats to the upper room of Simon bar Jonas’s house, Daniel lingers in the dark garden, unable to walk away. Eventually, the door opens, and Jesus holds out a lamp, asking who is there. He tells Daniel to come upstairs. Daniel sits down with Jesus in the nearly bare, earthen room. Jesus receives Daniel’s warning with thanks, but he asks Daniel why he is troubled. Daniel tries to hold back, but his conscience has been nagging him. Finally, everything spills out.
Daniel finally has a chance to meet with Jesus one on one. (This is the most heavily fictionalized part of Speare’s portrayal of Jesus.) Jesus perceives that Daniel hasn’t come here primarily to give him a warning. In response, Daniel instinctively trusts Jesus as worthy of his confidence.
Themes
Daniel tells Jesus that everything he has been living for has failed—freedom for the Jews, and vengeance for his father’s death. Jesus points out that these are two separate things. Daniel argues that he can fight for both things at once. He has worked and planned for that very thing, but it has all gone wrong, leaving him with a debt to pay. Jesus asks Daniel about Samson, and Daniel explains how Samson died for him, as well as the rest of the story.
Daniel sums up his failures and sorrows. Jesus suggests that maybe fighting for vengeance isn’t the same thing as fighting for freedom. In fact, fighting for vengeance only seems to have deepened Daniel’s troubles instead of freeing him.
Themes
Jesus agrees with Daniel—Scripture says that we must repay each other in kind. But Samson did not give Daniel vengeance—he gave him love, the greatest kind of love. How, then, can Daniel repay him with hate?
Jesus’s words are an allusion to John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus’s point is that getting vengeance for Samson’s death wouldn’t actually take away Daniel’s debt—because Samson died for him out of love.
Themes
Get the entire The Bronze Bow LitChart as a printable PDF.
Daniel says it’s too late to love Samson, as he’s probably dead. Is Jesus saying that Daniel should love the Romans who are responsible for Samson’s death? Jesus smiles at this. He tells Daniel that hate is the enemy, not people. Killing doesn’t eliminate hate—it just causes hate to spring up anew. The only thing that’s stronger than hatred is love. Daniel is disturbed—this isn’t what he had come to Jesus to hear.
Daniel struggles to conceive of loving his Roman enemies instead of hating them. Jesus suggests that this is the key to freedom for Daniel. Continuing to fight would just perpetuate the cycle of hatred and vengeance. Something more than hatred is necessary. Even though Daniel has questioned Rosh’s way, Jesus’s way is still too radical for him.
Themes
Daniel tells Jesus that he doesn’t understand, but he knows that Jesus could lead the people of Galilee if he chose. After a long silence, Jesus tells Daniel that he wants Daniel to follow him. Ecstatic, Daniel vows to fight for Jesus until the end. But Jesus asks for something harder—will Daniel love for him to the end? Daniel, deflated, says that he wants to fight for the coming of the kingdom. He has even made a sacred vow to do so—to live and die for God’s Victory. At this, Jesus’s grave expression lights up again. He tells Daniel that this is not a hateful vow. In fact, he is not far from the kingdom.
Daniel still thinks Jesus might be a Messiah who will fight on earthly terms—to win freedom for Galilee by overthrowing Rome. But that isn’t Jesus’s plan. He wants Daniel to follow him for a different purpose. According to Jesus, this doesn’t negate Daniel’s vow in any way. God’s victory, in other words, is not dependent on fighting for vengeance. He calls upon Daniel to accept this.
Themes
