This is slightly off topic from the Jesus Myth, but only slightly. We spend a lot of times differentiating Jesus from other gods. What about YHWH?
The stories about YHWH were coming out at the same time as stories about gods of other nations. What is the difference?
Of course there are differences in the stories of the gods of each culture. However, there are things that are common. Usually, there is some sort of origin story, that is a narrative of where they came from and who their parents were.
Often there are stories about their siblings, their spouses (sometimes these two were the same) and children. Their personalities are usually very human-like. They were easy to identify, even if they weren’t always likeable.
But there is nothing like that about YHWH. There is no hint that there was a time when he was not. There are no divine parents. There are no divine wife. That is not say that no ancient Israelites didn’t try to set him up.
What about a child? Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God. First we need to notice that there is nothing like that in the Old Testament. And when we get to the New Testament, there is no hint of the normal procreation as seen in the pagan myths. See this post. Unlike the other gods, YHWH doesn’t have a body with which he can use to have sex with women, divine or human.
This of course doesn’t prove that YHWH is the one true God. But it does show that YHWH is very different from the other gods in surrounding cultures.
