Questions and Answers: Chapters 6-10
Questions
1. Where do Joel and Malthace hide Daniel and for what purpose?
2. What is the significance of the biblical passage that begins chapter 7?
3. Why does Malthace argue that Rosh is not the leader the Jews have been expecting?
4. What is Daniel’s personal vendetta against the Romans?
5. How does Malthace convince Joel and Daniel to let her take the vow to fight for freedom?
6. According to Rosh, what is Daniel’s “fatal flaw”?
Answers
1. The twins hide Daniel in a small storage room that is accessible both inside
and outside the house via a secret passageway. They do so to nurse him back to
health after Daniel is injured as a result of disrespecting and resisting a
Roman soldier.
2. The three friends interpret the lines from the Book of Enoch as a call to resistance and defiance. They believe that the promised Messiah will seek bloody vengeance for the people of Israel. Joel argues that the “men of old didn’t wait for God to win their battles for them. They rose up and fought, and God strengthened them.”
3. Although Daniel is convinced that Rosh is the man for whom they have waited, and Joel is becoming increasingly won over, Malthace does not believe that God would choose an outlaw to “bring in his kingdom.”
4. The Romans are responsible for the death of his father and uncle. Daniel’s uncle was taken to prison for failure to pay taxes. His father tried to rescue him. They were caught and crucified. His mother stood by the crosses for two days and nights while he died. She became ill due to the exposure and because of her grief. She too died a few weeks later. Daniel’s five-year-old sister, Leah, had somehow gotten away from a neighbor and witnessed her father hanging on the cross. The trauma of the event seems to have driven Leah mad; she screams in her sleep and refuses to leave the house. Daniel’s grandmother tries to care for the orphaned children but is too poor to do so. She is forced to sell Daniel into slavery to Amalek the blacksmith. Daniel blames all of these tragedies on the Romans.
5. Malthace argues that many women in the Bible have served God admirably. She cites Deborah and Queen Esther. Daniel resists, saying that the vow is “a man’s vow.” Joel solves the problem by saying that they “will make a new vow. The three of us together. For God’s victory.”
6. Rosh says the Daniel’s fatal flaw is Daniel’s “soft streak.”
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.