Did other gods in ANE call themselves "God"?

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Kenneth Greifer
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Did other gods in ANE call themselves "God"?

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

In the Hebrew Bible, David called himself David, and Solomon called himself Solomon in one quote, and Jonathan called himself Jonathan once. God calls Himself God and the Lord many times. Are there examples in other ancient Near Eastern religious or non-religious books or whatever ancient kind of ancient writing where kings, people, or gods call themselves by their own names or titles. I know that in the New Testament, a man called himself "the son of man." Was this common in the past?
Kenneth Greifer
Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Did other gods in ANE call themselves "God"?

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

I just found out they call it "third-person self-reference." It is also called "illeism."
Kenneth Greifer
Kenneth Greifer
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Re: Did other gods in ANE call themselves "God"?

Post by Kenneth Greifer »

I found a book review on a book by someone named Roderick Elledge that discusses illeism or third-person self-reference in the ANE and he said other gods called themselves by their own names too a lot.
Kenneth Greifer
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Jason Hare
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Re: Did other gods in ANE call themselves "God"?

Post by Jason Hare »

Kenneth Greifer wrote: Sun Mar 06, 2022 9:04 am I found a book review on a book by someone named Roderick Elledge that discusses illeism or third-person self-reference in the ANE and he said other gods called themselves by their own names too a lot.
I don’t have access to ANE texts, so I cannot say. I’m glad you got a reference on this.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
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