Trust, Dependence, and Friendship Theme Analysis

Daniel’s early life is marked by independence. After his parents are killed by the Romans, Daniel is apprenticed to an abusive blacksmith and finally runs away. Rosh, leader of a group of Galilean rebels, grants Daniel a new life as one of his fighters. When Daniel grows used to this free and relatively secure life, he balks at returning to his home village and his younger sister, Leah. But after their grandmother dies, Daniel must care for Leah himself, and this burden threatens to entangle him in the village life he’d hoped to leave behind. In the process, he makes friends for the first time—like siblings Joel and Thacia—and realizes the goodness of connecting with and finding support from others instead of avoiding them. Over the course of the book, Daniel’s growing friendships make him realize the importance of relationships—even caring for and depending on others— for a truly meaningful life.

For years, Daniel has lived with a group of anti-Roman rebels on a nearby mountain—a life of relative freedom. Because of this, Daniel fears being tied down by others, especially having to support them. When Daniel was at his lowest point, Rosh gave him a home and something to live for. At the beginning of the book, as his old schoolmates Joel and Thacia question him about his life on the mountain, Daniel remembers “how Rosh had reached out a hand, nor to strike him but to help him to his feet […] had picked him up and carried him like a baby all the way to the cave.” Up till then, Daniel’s life had been marked by orphanhood and abuse. So Rosh’s rescue—and then getting to live on the mountain and fight for Rosh—felt like a kind of rebirth, even a rejection of conventional family commitment.

Because his life now revolves around Rosh’s cause, Daniel sees his family—namely his troubled younger sister, Leah—as a threat to his independence. When he visits Leah for the first time in years and sees how desperately she needs him, Daniel sees his sister’s dependence on him as a fearful trap: “Suddenly he was afraid again. He looked away, trying to shut out the sight of her [...] Everything he cared about and worked for was threatened by that small helpless figure.” Daniel knows that supporting Leah will hamper his ability to fight for Israel’s future with Rosh, the only commitment he cares about.

After Daniel returns from the mountain to the village and takes up blacksmithing in order to support Leah, he feels imprisoned by his sister’s demands on him. One day he arrives home to find that Leah “had not combed her hair or bothered to get herself breakfast. With irritation he saw that the water jar was empty and that he would have to stand in line at the well with the snickering women. […] [T]he bars of his cage slid into place around him.” Not only is Leah helplessly needy, but her needs feel emasculating to Daniel, the antithesis of the rebellious role he’d rather fill. Instead of living an unfettered life on the mountain and fighting for a higher cause, he’s bound to his sister. Caring for Leah feels like a trap (“the bars of his cage”).

But when he experiences the benefits of friendship for himself, Daniel realizes that connection between people is indispensable for a meaningful life, not a trap to be feared. After getting injured in Capernaum and being secretly nursed back to health by his friend Joel, Daniel realizes he’s been missing something without even knowing it: “He had never admitted to himself that he was lonely here on the mountain. […] But the few days in Joel’s passageway had shown him a new world. He had found someone to talk to, someone who had shared his own thoughts, and who had instantly taken Daniel’s burden as his own.” Before, Daniel has shared common goals with fellow rebels, but he’s never had a real friend—someone who genuinely cares about Daniel and is even willing to put Daniel’s needs first.

As Daniel continues to let Joel and his sister Thacia into his life—even at the cost of becoming more tied to village life—Daniel also sees the benefits of friendship for Leah. Sheltered all her life, Leah blossoms when others finally see her as valuable, a reflection of what Daniel himself is experiencing through friendship. Thacia tells Daniel, “Every time I come, Leah has changed […] It’s like watching a flower opening very slowly. From week to week I can hardly wait to see how it has opened since I saw her last.” Daniel tells Thacia that Leah has never had a friend before, so her blossoming is Thacia’s doing. Friendship—being really recognized and cared for by another person—is indispensable for a fulfilled life.

Daniel’s experiences of trusting friends and serving his family prepare him for what the novel presents as the ultimate step of trust and dependence—trust in Jesus. When Jesus comes to Daniel’s house to heal Leah, Daniel finally gives up his resistance to Jesus: “Suddenly, with a longing that was more than he could bear, he wanted to stop fighting against this man. He knew that he would give everything he possessed in life to follow Jesus. […] To know Jesus would be enough.” Giving up his vow to fight the Romans—the thing that’s given shape and meaning to Daniel’s life—no longer seems like a sacrifice, as it did before. Even though he doesn’t yet know what following Jesus will mean for his past dreams, just knowing Jesus—having a relationship with him—is portrayed as worthwhile in and of itself.