The Bronze Bow

Summary

The Bronze Bow is set in Galilee in the years of Jesus' public ministry, under Roman rule. Its hero, Daniel bar Jamin, is eighteen and has lived for five years with an outlaw band in the hills above his village of Ketzah, near Capernaum. When he was eight, his uncle was seized by the Romans over unpaid taxes, and his father and other men who tried to free him were crucified; his mother died soon after, and his little sister Leah has been so terrified ever since that she will not leave the house, and the villagers say she has a demon. Bound as an apprentice to Amalek, a cruel blacksmith, Daniel ran away to the mountain, where the rebel leader Rosh took him in. Daniel lives for one purpose, to drive the Romans out and avenge his father. On the mountain he meets Joel bar Hezron, a former schoolmate whose father is a learned Pharisee moving the family to Capernaum, and Joel's twin sister Malthace, called Thacia. The three swear an oath together to fight for God's victory, and Daniel takes as their sign the verse from the Song of David about hands trained for war and arms that can bend a bow of bronze. Joel becomes Rosh's informer in Capernaum. Daniel also acquires a huge foreign slave, Samson, taken by the band from a caravan, who attaches himself to Daniel with silent devotion. When his grandmother falls ill, Daniel must come down from the mountain to care for her and Leah; Simon the Zealot, an old acquaintance who has left his forge to follow Jesus of Nazareth, gives Daniel his blacksmith's shop in Ketzah. There Daniel works, organises a secret band of village boys, and repeatedly hears Jesus teach, drawn to him yet unable to accept a kingdom that does not come by the sword. After his grandmother dies, Daniel gradually sees Rosh as a mere bandit, and the break comes when Joel is arrested and Rosh refuses to help. Daniel's own boys ambush the soldiers taking Joel to the coast and free him, but Samson, who breaks Joel's chains and holds off the soldiers, is killed, as is the boy Nathan. Meanwhile Leah has secretly befriended Marcus, a lonely young Roman soldier, and when Daniel discovers it and drives him off in fury, Leah sinks into a dangerous fever. Desperate, Daniel goes to Jesus, who comes to the house and restores Leah. Daniel understands at last that hate is the enemy and that only love can bend the bow of bronze, and he invites Marcus into his home. Speare's novel was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1961 and won the Newbery Medal in 1962.

Top Lessons

• Hatred is a master, not a weapon

  Daniel believes his hatred of Rome gives him strength, but it drives him to cruelty toward his own sister and blinds him to Rosh's character. The novel shows hatred as something that rules the one who carries it, and Daniel is freed only when he gives it up.

• Choosing whom to follow

  Daniel serves two leaders: Rosh, who promises a sword, and Jesus, who will not take one up. By watching what each man does to the people around him, Daniel learns to judge leaders by their fruits rather than their slogans.

• A different kind of kingdom

  Daniel and many in Galilee expect a Messiah who will lead an army. Speare shows Jesus gently refusing that role and speaking of a kingdom that begins with forgiveness, which Daniel finds harder to accept than any battle.

• The cost of loyalty

  Samson's silent devotion and death, and Joel's and Thacia's faithfulness to the oath, show loyalty as something costly. Daniel learns that those who love him pay for his choices, which makes his choices weightier.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Leah's condition is the novel's most interesting thread for a psychiatric reader. Since witnessing the arrest and crucifixion of her father at about five years old, she has stayed indoors, frightened of strangers and of the outside world, and the village calls her possessed by a demon, which is how first-century Galileans would have framed such a state. A modern reader may see something like a trauma-related fearfulness or agoraphobia, but that is an interpretation; Speare presents her within the period's religious understanding and resolves her illness through Jesus' healing. Daniel's mother is said to have died of grief, a cause commonly given in older narratives. Leah's later collapse into a wasting fever after Daniel drives Marcus away links emotional shock with physical illness. Wounds from skirmishes, the grandmother's last illness, and the household nursing that falls to Daniel complete the medical texture.

• Opening chapters

  Daniel tells Joel and Thacia how his father was crucified, his mother died of grief, and Leah has been afraid to leave the house ever since.

• Middle chapters, Ketzah

  Daniel returns to nurse his failing grandmother and look after Leah, and his grandmother dies.

• Rescue of Joel

  The ambush on the road in which Samson and Nathan are mortally wounded freeing Joel.

• Final chapters

  Leah falls into a high, wasting fever after Daniel drives Marcus away, and Jesus comes to the house and restores her.