Although in some ways the God of Israel as we encounter him in the Hebrew Bible is no doubt distinct from the type of gods worshiped by other peoples in antiquity, for centuries biblical scholars and interpreters have viewed him as a deity who is motivated above all else by a desire to be worshiped, served, and obeyed in the way that the gods of other ancient peoples were thought to be. The question that must be addressed, however, is whether this conception of the God of the Hebrew Bible is actually grounded in the biblical texts or is instead a presupposition that those scholars and interpreters have read back into the texts.
