The Bronze Bow

Daniel makes three vows during the book: one to himself, one with Joel and Thacia to God, and a repetition of the second vow to Jesus. His first is made at the age of eight, when he witnesses his...

Rosh is a Zealot, which means that he wants to rid Israel of the Romans and establish once again a Jewish kingdom, as in the days of David and Solomon. He will go to any means to achieve this,...

Samson is the huge and incredibly strong former slave who is freed by Daniel. When he first arrives to be with Daniel and the other rebels, he is given into Daniel's care, and Daniel's kindness and...

The plot is driven by the personal quest of Daniel, who lose his father and uncle to the Romans and is seeking revenge. Daniel wishes to help the bandit leader Rosh build an army to drive the...

Like Rosh, Simon wants to see Israel liberated from the Roman occupier. Unlike the bandit leader, however, he believes that true liberation will only come from following in the footsteps of Jesus....

Daniel looks up to Rosh, seeing him as brave zealot whose example he wishes to emulate. Over time, however, he comes to be disillusioned with Rosh and his methods. Although Rosh purports to be a...

The incident occurs in Chapter Twelve. The boy who is beaten up is Nathan. The beating is carried out by other boys whom he had considered friends. The crime had been that the fact that his...

After Daniel splits with Rosh and Joel's rescue, Joel's father informs him that he is sending him to a school in Jerusalem to continue his studies. Joel is resistant to this idea, and tells...

In chapter 22, Daniel returns home from watching Thacia dance at the festival. When he arrives home, Leah asks him numerous questions about the festivities and asks her brother if he thinks she is...

As Daniel gets to know Thacia better and as he begins living in the village and being exposed to people who live in family units, including his friend Nathan, he begins to feel angry at the fact...

The topic of debate on page 195 of my copy of The Bronze Bow, the 1961 Houghton Mifflin publication, is Rosh's habit of stealing from the poor peasants to support his band of warriors. The...

The most important theme is that of forgiveness and love. Daniel is entirely ruled by his emotions and his need for revenge; he is driven by anger and not thinking about the larger consequences of...

Elizabeth George Spear’s novel The Bronze Bow features a number of significant settings. In general terms, the novel is set in Roman-occupied Judaea during the time of Jesus (first century C.E.)....

In chapter 6, Daniel is confronted by two Roman soldiers while he is leaving Hezron's home and they demand that he water their horses. Unable to control his temper, Daniel throws the water into the...

Simon is a zealot, working towards the cause of Israeli freedom. However, in contrast to Daniel, Simon's work is in knowledge and love, not in violence. Daniel wants revolution; Simon wants peace...

Hezron, Joel's father, is a Rabbi, or teacher of the Jewish Law. He is also a Pharisee, a member of a strict sect of Jewish leaders whom Jesus said valued outward observance of the law over inward...

In Chapter 4, when Daniel sees Jesus for the first time, he mentions that his figure was "not in any way arresting" and that he could see from Jesus' arms and shoulders that he had worked hard...

When the story starts, Daniel is an emotionally-barren young man driven entirely by his hatred of the Romans. His memories of his happy home life are vague, and his devotion is to Rosh, the bandit...

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter 16, in which the latest orders of Rosh are given to Daniel. In order to carry these orders out, he needs Joel's help, and so he goes to the city...

Several good things happen to Daniel when he moves back to the village that show that life there is not as terrible as he remembers it. First, Simon, his former fellow apprentice at the blacksmith...

Daniel arrives back at the cave a number of times during the course of the narrative. The first time he leaves the cave after Samson's arrival, he has to be quite firm in insisting that the quiet...

When Jesus comes to Daniel's home, Daniel knows that somehow, the holy man understands everything about him. When Jesus looks at him, there is no need to speak. Jesus (knows). He under(stands)...

When Daniel returns to the cave after a prolonged absence, he notices that Samson is not present. Usually, the giant is the first to greet him, as Samson believes he owes his life to Daniel....

First, she acts rather snottily when Daniel seeks her help when he arrives at her home wounded. She is a relatively rich girl, the daughter of a distinguished Pharisean priest. She lives in a...

I take it that you are referring to Chapter Sixteen of this excellent novel, when Daniel, Joel and Thacia meet to discuss how they can gain the names of the rich who are going to be away from home...

Joel is enamored with Rosh, as Daniel was at the beginning, because he sees the hillside bandit as representation of rebellion against the Romans. He believes that Rosh is fighting for the cause of...

In Chapter 6, Daniel comes to Joel's house after he has been wounded in a skirmish with a Roman soldier. Daniel has previously made a poor impression on Joel's father, so it is risky for him to...

Daniel has missed being with Rosh and his merry band of zealots. He didn't want to leave his comrades behind, but as he had to take care of Leah, he had no choice. But all the time he spent away...

Malthace's visit with Leah causes Daniel to look at his sister "with new eyes". He suddenly realizes that while she spends her days weaving beautiful clothing for wealthy women, she...

In Chapter 7, Joel and Malthace care for Daniel, who has recently suffered an injury to his side. Joel reads a short passage from the Book of Enoch, and Daniel tells Joel that he thinks Rosh is...

After Joel's rescue, he returns to his home and finds out that the Rabbis at the Jewish Temples are angry about the preachings of Jesus. They believe that he is changing and altering the laws they...

Daniel’s cheeks grow hot in response to receiving word that Thacia has sent him a message due to his growing affection for Thacia and her similar feelings of affection for him. Daniel is a young...

Samson is a giant slave rescued by Rosh's raid on a caravan. He is very strong, mute, and might be developmentally disabled. However, he shows intense loyalty to Daniel, not to Rosh, because when...

Daniel has refused to return to his village, leaving his sister and grandmother behind. He sees his past life as nothing more than bad memories, with his father and uncle's death too closely...

The three young friends make a vow in chapter 7 to fight for God's victory. By this they mean to free the Jewish people from the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire. While Daniel is recuperating...

The quote is significant because it symbolizes the union of Joel and Thacia with Daniel, joined together with the common purpose of working to free the Jewish people from Roman subjugation....

Joel from the start of this excellent novel is paired up with Daniel. They are both eighteen years old and appear together in the first chapter. Likewise, both Joel and Daniel are filled with...

The warning that Joel passes on to Daniel is grave: despite their shared interests in rebelling against the Romans, the teachers and Rabbis in the Jewish Temples are upset with the preachings of...

Initially, Daniel is deeply committed to the idea of removing the Romans from Israel by force. In symbolic terms, he believes that he and the other zealots can bend the bronze bow by force. At...

When Simon first went to be with Jesus, he was hoping to ask Jesus to join him in the rebel band formed by Rosh to overthrow the Romans. After hearing Jesus' message of a Heavenly Kingdom and a...

Daniel bar Jamin is lonely and bitter. Almost everyone in his family has died, both directly and indirectly, at the hands of the Romans. He is taken into slavery, but is able to escape. His...

When Daniel is taken to the temple by Simon to see Jesus of Nazareth in Elizabeth George Speare's The Bronze Bow, he is initially uninterested. Jesus arrives dressed plainly, and as he begins to...

Samson, who is strong like his Biblical namesake, is a gentle soul. He is filled with gratitude and love, principles that guide his life. Unlike Rosh, Samson cares about others more than himself...

Due to his size and capacity to be physically useful to the band of Zealots, Rosh thinks that Samson (the slave) would prove a valuable addition to his arsenal of manpower.Indeed, as time...

It is actually in Chapter 14 that Daniel returns to the cave. Daniel has been living in the village so that he can care for his sister Leah now that their grandmother has died. He had not wanted to...

In Chapter 15, Daniel begins going to Capernaum nearly every morning and every evening to hear Jesus preach. This chapter describes the way Jesus helps many people. Jesus's words encourage Daniel...

Despite their many differences, Hezron and Daniel are surprisingly similar throughout the novel The Bronze Bow. Daniel and Hezron are both passionate about the Roman occupation of Galilee. In...

Jesus had helped Thacia understand that the coming of God's kingdom will be different from what might be expected. Instead of involving victory in warfare, it instead will manifest itself in a...

In Chapter 1, Daniel encounters Joel bar Hezron and his sister, Malthace, on the mountain. When he sees Joel and Malthace, Daniel wonders about their reasons for climbing up the mountain....

In The Bronze Bow, Rosh accuses Daniel of having a 'soft streak.' He tells Daniel that this softness is like 'a bad streak in a piece of metal.' Here, Rosh is using the language of the blacksmith:...