The threshold covenant

by Henry Clay Trumbull

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Henry Clay Trumbull (usually published as H. Clay Trumbull) was an American clergyman and author. He became a world famous editor, author, and pioneer of the Sunday School Movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_C...

Reviews

[Mark Gring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, along with Trumbull's other two books on covenant ritual and covenant making are a wonderful amateur anthropologist's collection of stories, references, and examples of blood covenants and how they have been a part of human history and how God used this pre-existing ritual and theological act to make it more significant when He enacted the covenant of redemption/grace to make a people for himself.
Trumbull's books all help the reader to see that covenant-making is a basic activity of humanity--whether on an individual, small group, corporate, or nation-state level. At the heart of all human activity is the desire for the intimate trust that was once brought about by blood covenants between people who either shared blood intravenously, drank it, used small cuts to "share" the blood, or used some other symbolic form in place of blood.
Trumbull argues that the first altar was the family-dwelling threshold, that place that used to be a "basin" to receive the blood of animals who were sacrificed in order to ensure the safety of significant guests, new brides, or other friends/family who would visit the household or pass through the border of a country/region. Thresholds were the fist altars, the boundary-markers that either put one in jeopardy or, with a blood covenant, ensured that a person or group would be shown "tessera hospitalis" and ensure that safe hospitality and care would be given not only to an individual person but also, potentially, to his/her offspring--for generations to come.
Trumbull shows us in his three books that these covenant rituals and expectations were shared world-wide. There is not a region in the world where Trumbull does not cite some example about a blood covenant or its progenitor, the threshold covenant, or its symbolic bread and salt, wine, or even coffee-based covenant.
These are fascinating books for those who desire to see a world-wide understanding of covenant making and for those who want to read multiple examples of covenant making from as old as 3000 years before Christ to as late as the 1890s. Trumbull does tie in these ideas with the clear covenant making activities found in scripture and what he adds brings depth of understanding and a clarity to things now long forgotten.

[Tyler Rosenquist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding scholarship into the world of threshold, foundational and hearth sacrifices