Perhaps no declaration incites more outrage than a human's claim to be God. Those who make this claim in ancient Jewish and Christian mythology are typically either demonized or deified. In six examples, delicately and stunningly considered, Litwa brings insight and compassion to one of the most controversial phenomena in the study of religion, the instances in which some people claim to be divine. Litwa engages the reader in excavating an entire realm of immense theological importance, one banished and disdained by generations, yet ever-existing just behind the text of the most omnipresent book in human history. Drawing from his famil-iarity with the world of nascent Christianity, Litwa shows how self-deification was utilized by ancient religious groups as either a source of ultimate condem-nation or the final stage in human destiny.