BIRTHDAY (יﯴמ֙ הֻלֶּ֣דֶת, day of birth; γενεσία, birthday celebration). The celebration of the anniversary of one’s birth is a universal practice, for in most human societies the privileges and responsibilities of life are attached to the attainment of a certain age. The surviving census documents, dating back to a.d. 48, carefully record the age of those described and enrolled according to the requirements of the Rom. census law, which implies an observance and counting of birthdays. The birth of a child, according to Leviticus 12, occasioned certain rites and ceremonies. Under the Mosaic law age was the chief qualification for authority and office. The blind man’s parents declared that their son was “of age” (John 9:21). There was significance in Jesus’ visit to the Temple at twelve years of age. In spite of the absence of documentary material, it seems obvious that birthdays held their annual importance.

Scripture speaks specifically of two birthdays only, both of them royal. It is recorded (Gen 40:20) that Pharaoh declared an amnesty on his birthday. References to this practice in Egypt can be traced back to the 13th cent. b.c., and to the Gr. successors of the pharaohs, e.g. Ptolemy V (205-182 b.c.). The Persians had a similar practice. Reference is made to the birthday of Herod Antipas (Matt 14:6; Mark 6:21). The king with his armed forces at the eastern fortress of Machaerus was involved, thanks to his liaison with Herodias, in a tribal border war. It was in the midst of the carnal revelry of this occasion that John the Baptist was murdered. Edersheim (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah I, 672 fn. 1) asserts without valid reason that the celebration was to mark the anniversary of Herod’s accession. “It is not likely,” he says, “that the Herodians would have celebrated their birthdays.” In point of fact, it is no more unlikely than that Pharaoh should have celebrated his.