The Salt Covenant: As Based on the Significance and Symbolism of Salt in Primitive Thought

by Henry Clay Trumbull

The original Salt Covenant by H. Clay Trumbull... Salt symbolizes blood and life, the supreme gift from a Supreme Giver. The Covenant of Salt, as a form of the Blood Covenant, is a covenant that is fixed, permanent and unchangeable, thus enduring forever. Why did God give the kingdom to David and his sons forever by a covenant of salt? Why is salt sometimes substituted for blood in making covenant? Was the destruction of Sodom a result of disregard for the covenant of salt? Why did Lot’s wife become a pillar of salt? Why does Jesus refer to His followers as “the salt of the earth?” Why is Judas represented in Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper as having overturned a salt cellar? Also included by H. Clay The Ten Commandments as a Covenant of Love.

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1899

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.

[Citrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book wasn't at all what I thought it would be . But with only 3 references to it in the Bible , I don't know what I expected . I love the salt covenant I love all the references to salt in the Bible . So much symbolism and history . It's sort of a straight through read , as in it goes over all the different aspects and lists virtually every people group in the world and how they view and use salt . I would recommend it for people who are looking for something specific not just interested in learning more on the topic .