Birthday

Birthday. The term “birthday” (Heb., yom hulledet, “the day that [someone] was given birth”; Gr., genesia, “birthday celebration”) appears on two occasions, once in the Old and once in the New Testament. In Genesis, the author uses the expression yom hulledet to describe Pharaoh’s birthday banquet (Gen 40:20). The parallel accounts of Matthew 14:6 and Mark 6:21 narrate Herod’s birthday feast. Notably, both Pharaoh and Herod, powerful rulers of their time, used their birthdays as occasions to gather their subordinates for celebration. These birthday accounts are closely tied to grand and dramatic events in the lives of biblical characters. On Pharaoh’s birthday, Joseph’s interpretation regarding the chief butler and chief baker was fulfilled, eventually leading to Joseph’s exaltation. In the Gospels, at Herod’s birthday feast, the request of Herodias’s daughter led to the beheading of John the Baptist.