FS Naiden ends his Smoke Signals for the Gods with a fascinating discussion of the contrast between Greek and Hebrew conceptions of God (323-4)

Greek gods were watchers of sacrifices, watchers of humans “as if attending a play” (322). They passed judgments, but the judgments were never permanent. They were based both on the worshiper’s devotion and the kala of his sacrifice. Even when the god drew close, “gods and humans remained apart,” and this distance “had an anti-eschatological effect.” Greek gods didn’t know what was going to happen at the end of things, and they didn’t concern themselves with the world at large: “Although well traveled, the Greek god was a chauvinist.”

The God of Christians was intensely nearer: “He passed judgment on every act, and extended grace at every instant. He punished and gave rewards immediately, but also eventually, and in the end he punished and gave rewards permanently. He did not need frequent acts of sacrifice in order to visit humankind. Nor did he need acts of sacrifice in order to respond to humankind.” 

Less distant than a Greek God, the Christian God was also “less constrained; He had created the earth and would bring it to an end; he had created huamankind and would provide a final judgment that he would not assign to any chthonic being.”

In short, “He was no mere spectator.”

In Israel, Yahweh accepted sacrifice and passed judgment, though “until the appearance of belief in a messiah, he did not punish or give rewards permanently.” He received sacrifices not so much like a member of an audience but “as a king receiving tribute.” The God of Israel appears in fire, for which there is no Greek parallel: “The Hebrew God draws closer, veers more toward the elemental, and shifts the balance between two sacrificial emotions - joy and aw - away from the first toward the second.” He is not interest in ta kala; the one place of beauty, the Most Holy Place, was inaccessible, and Yahweh was not liable to be swayed by displays of beauty.

In sum (326): “The Greek god was a theoros, the Christian God a savior, the Hebrew God a ruler.” And these different deities implied different notions of theophany: “For the Greek god, they provide occasions to receive a sacrifice; for the Christian God, occasions to receive thanks; for the Hebrew God, occasions for his people to repent.”