Birth-day

Birthday observances in the biblical record are associated primarily with royal courts and Gentile custom rather than with ordinary Israelite practice. The earliest clear biblical reference to a birthday celebration is the account of Pharaoh's birthday feast in Genesis 40:20, at which the chief butler was restored to his position and the chief baker was executed—the fulfillment of Joseph's interpretations of their dreams in prison. The pattern of birthday celebration as a royal feast at which gifts are given and dramatic decisions made reappears in the New Testament.

The most theologically significant birthday narrative in Scripture is Herod Antipas's birthday banquet in Matthew 14:6-11 and Mark 6:21-28, at which Herodias's daughter danced, Herod made a rash oath to give her whatever she asked, and she requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herod was reluctant but complied, unwilling to refuse before his guests, and John was beheaded in prison. The association of birthday feasts with dark outcomes in both Genesis and the Gospels may reflect an ancient Jewish ambivalence toward birthday celebration as a Gentile practice. Job's sons held regular feasts on their birthdays that Job sanctified with burnt offerings as a precaution.