The Threshold Covenant; or, The Beginning of Religious Rites

In both Europe and America, the practice of nailing horseshoes on the side-posts of a doorway, for “good luck,” or as a means of guarding the inmates of the house from evil, is...

Among the Russian peasants the idea prevails that the building of a new house “is apt to be followed by the death of the head of the family for which the new dwelling is constru...

Herodotus mentions[34] that, in the annual feast in honor of the god Osiris, “every Egyptian sacrifices a hog before the door of his house” on the evening before the festival. O...

Traces of the sacredness of the threshold altar seem to exist in the wedding ceremonies in villages on the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. “After the marriage is solemnized, ....

Speaking of the growth of the early church buildings, Bingham says: “In the strictest sense, including only the buildings within the walls, they were commonly divided into three...

Among primitive peoples it was a common thought that the first fruits of life in any sphere belonged of right to God, or the gods. This was true of the fields, of the flocks and...

When the sacred ark of the Hebrews was captured by the Philistines, and brought into the house of the god Dagon, the record is: “When they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, b...

No American scholar is better fitted than the Rev. Dr. William Elliot Griffis to speak of Japanese manners and customs, and of the religions and modes of thought of the people o...

Minor errors or inconsistencies in punctuation and formatting have been silently corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the h...

It is distinctly declared as to the shape of the altar, standing east and west, that it “should be broader on the west side, contracted on the middle, and broad again on the eas...

Perrot and Chipiez’s _Hist. of Art. in Chald. and Assy._, I., p. 196. See, also, pp. 87, 143, 212; II., 99, 111, 169, 211, 215, 227, 231, 257, 261, 266, 267, 273, 275, 279. See,...

See Bancroft’s _Native Races and Antiquities_, IV., 209 f., 314, 321, 323, 332, 338, 351, 531, 801, 803, 805. See also, Stephens’s _Incidents of Travels in Yucatan_, I., 137, 16...

As showing that the term “threshold” is not applied to these boundary stones merely by accommodation, it is sufficient to quote from Justinian in the case. He declares specifica...

While early Vedic and Brahmanic religion makes no mention of temples as such, fire from an ancestral altar was borne to a newly erected altar, in order to secure a continuance o...

“Muhammadani, de foeminis suis interrogati, aegre invitique respondent. Attamen post longam diuturnamque cum iis consuetudinem, data occasione, contigit mihi hac de re cum quibu...

2 : 13 215 3 : 14, 15 239 3 : 16 217 3 : 28–30 218 7 : 1–9 215 10 : 1, 10 6, 261 10 : 2 6 10 : 9 6, 104 13 : 1 215

A hand-print is a signature. A hand-print in blood is a pledge of life in a sacred covenant. A hand-print in the blood of life is symbolic of a covenant of life with a view to t...

Thus the command to Jehovah’s people as to their treatment of the people of Canaan was: “Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither...

.p2 Rahab, blood-colored thread on house of, 211. Raja Pasupati, reference to, 157. Ralston, W.R.S.: cited, 12, 19, 24, 32, 54 f.; quotation from, 23. Rameses II., reference to,...

Gabriel kissing threshold of gate, 124. Galam, survival of foundation-laying in blood in, 51 f. “Galeed,” memorial of covenant between Jacob and Laban, 171. Galilee, Sea of, ref...

Laban and Jacob agreeing about landmark, 171. Lachish, Tell el-Hesy, site of ancient, 58. Lacouperie, Terrien de: cited, 185, 231. Ladder, Jacob’s, probably stepped-temple struc...

Cairo: Arab sitting in judgment at gate of, 60; protecting genius of different quarters of, 96 f. Calling on name of God at threshold, 29. Calpë and Abyla as boundary marks, 181...

Aaron and his sons consecrated at doorway, 119. Aberdeenshire: New Year’s custom in, 20 f.; sacredness of threshold in, 34. Abimelech and Abraham settling disputed boundary, 170...

A former missionary in Palestine[691] says: “Digging through the wall is the common method pursued by housebreakers in Palestine, and, save in the cities, the operation is not o...

Vairorongo, sacred stream of under-world, in Islands of Sea, 152. Vambéry, Arminius: cited, 125. Vari, or “The-very-beginning,” in Islands of Sea, 151. Vātea, part man and part...

“Only a few days ago I finished reading your highly interesting little book, ‘The Threshold Covenant,’ and I hasten to write to you, that I have read it with ever-increasing int...