History Main / EthnicGod

Not to be confused with God being portrayed as a specific ethnic group: see DivineRaceLift.

-> ''"The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, and could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own."''
-->-- '''Xenophanes''', commenting on this trope.

-->-- '''Xenophanes''', ''commenting on this trope.''

* ''LightNovel/TheDeathMageWhoDoesntWantAFourthTime'': Originally, the deities Fidirg and Merrebeveil were only worshipped by the lizardmen and scylla, respectively. This changes after Van raises statue to them at Talosheim, after which their worship becomes more widespread.

* These gods seem to have been quite common in the ancient Middle East, with many of the region's groups following a specific god, sometimes out of a pantheon, and sometimes sharing a name with them. However, the most significant in the modern age is the god of [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} the Jewish people]]; early parts of ''Literature/TheBible'' and contemporary texts mention other gods and their tribes, but while the early Jews believed in what is known as "ethical monotheism", which holds that morality stems from God alone and that its laws are unchanging, they grew to believe that their god was the only real one and the rest were demonic beings or pure fantasy. While the early Israelites originated as a [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Mesopotamian culture]] and as slaves to the Egyptians, their belief in a singular all-powerful deity was revolutionary for its time, and the same god has gone on to be adopted by Christians and Muslims as the universal God, but is still firstly an ethnic god from a Jewish perspective.[[note]] The ancient Israelites were a Semitic people who settled in Canaan. In time, they established the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, where the modern nation of Israel is today. In 722 B.C, the Assyrians gained control of the kingdom of Israel. The Babylonians conquered Judah in 586 B.C, destroying the city of Jerusalem and removing its inhabitants to Babylon for some years. Eventually the people of Judah came to be known as Jews. Over the years the Jews produced sacred books, some of which form the Tanach, a set of documents known to Christians as the Old Testament of the Bible. These books include myths and legends about the history of the early Israelites as well as information about their religious beliefs. Traditional Jewish stories were influenced by ancient Semitic mythology. Connections are clearly seen in such stories as the fight between Cain and Abel and the great flood survived by Noah in his ark. In the same way, the story of creation in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament contains parallels to Mesopotamian myths about how Marduk organized the universe. One major difference between Jewish tradition and earlier Semitic mythology, however, is that Judaism was and is monotheistic. Instead of a pantheon of deities, it referred to a single, all-powerful God, sometimes called Yahweh.[[/note]] Prior to Judaism, there's evidence of their ancestors believing there were many gods, but coming to have exclusive worship of Yahweh (henotheism) before this became monotheism.