"Palms of Victory", also called "Deliverance Will Come", "The Blood-washed Pilgrim", and "The Way-worn Traveler", is a Christian hymn that appears to have been written in 1836 by John B. Matthias, a Methodist Episcopal minister in New York State.
[1] "Palms of Victory" appears to have been written by someone in particular, rather than having been the development of a community of folk singers, because it is a sophisticated song with complex verses that tell a consistent story.
George Pullen Jackson notes that spiritual folk songs arising from a community feature a "progressive simplification of the text".
[citation needed] Wayne Erbsen refers to research done by Gus Meade, concluding that Matthias wrote "Palms of Victory".
[16] In 1962 or 1963, Bob Dylan picked it up, changed the words, and wrote "Paths of Victory", which he sang on a Westinghouse television special.