Bobby Lane started a conversation at the BSA General Discussion forum on January 7, 2025, about the difference between Israel’s God YHWH and other Gods. Michael Waddell’s comment is worth saving and is copied below.
In the ancient world, gods were very local. The first mention of YHWH in a non-Hebrew inscription refers to him as “YHWH-Samaria”, and many gods were assumed to only rule (and, practically speaking, only exist) in one region. Temples were the literal homes of the gods, and destroying a temple either destroyed the god or left him homeless. Religion and law and culture were basically the same thing — you couldn’t convert to a religion without converting to the entire culture, including the legal framework, of the group that practiced it, and that group was always associated with a specific region. That was true of all gods, including YHWH, up until Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
Every other people would have just admitted that YHWH had been defeated by Marduk, just as surely as Jerusalem was defeated by Babylon. And most Judahites probably did conclude that. But a few had a different interpretation. (You can see this idea forming in the book of Ezekiel and the other prophets, and it’s fascinating.) Maybe YWHW wasn’t defeated at all. Maybe the Babylonians were doing YHWH’s bidding, punishing the Hebrews for their infidelity. But that would mean that his home wasn’t really the (destroyed) temple after all — his home was the entire heavens. That would mean that YHWH wasn’t just the god of Israel and Judah after all, as everyone had assumed — he would have to be the god of the entire Universe. His law (Torah) wasn’t just the applied law of a specific region under a specific monarchy — his law was dependent on no government, and was applicable throughout the entire world. That’s how a god became God. The Hebrews were the first people to make this claim (so far as we know), and it took over. First it took over the Hebrew areas, and at this point, thanks to Christianity and Islam, it’s fair to say that it took over the world.
You could see it as a sad excuse, saying God let them win, a coping mechanism. By that logic, YWHW was defeated. But also by that logic, YWHW never was God at all. He was a god of a specific people and place, dependent on the survival of a temple or government or culture, just like all the other gods, so his defeat would be nothing special. And in a sense, you’re right. YHWH-Samaria died when Samaria fell, and YHWH-Jerusalem died when Jerusalem fell. But the one God, the universal God of Heaven, the God of the Jews and Christians and Muslims, was born.
