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Birthday Celebrations Have Left a Trail of Death

THE celebration of birthdays is regarded by most people today as merely an innocent custom. But the Bible does not paint a positive picture of this tradition. For one thing, the Scriptures contain no indication that any of God’s faithful servants celebrated birthdays.

The only two birthdays the Bible does mention were for rulers who were enemies of God. Each celebration included an execution, so that the guests could gloat over the death of one who had displeased the king. In the first instance, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, executed his chief baker. (Genesis 40:2, 3, 20, 22) The Egyptian ruler did so during the feast because he had grown indignant with his servant. In the second instance, Herod, the immoral ruler of Galilee, beheaded John the Baptizer as a favor to a girl whose dancing at the party had pleased him. What repulsive scenes!​—Matthew 14:6-11.

Yet has not the Bible focused on two very exceptional birthdays? Not really. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus reveals that these incidents were not unique. He records other instances of the practice of birthday executions for entertainment.

For example, some occurred after Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 C.E., when 1,000,000 Jews perished and 97,000 survived to be taken prisoner. En route to Rome, Roman general Titus took his Jewish captives to the nearby seaport of Caesarea.

Josephus writes: “While Titus remained at Caesarea, he celebrated his brother Domitian’s birthday with great splendor, putting over 2,500 prisoners to death in games with beasts and flames. After this he moved to Berytus [Beirut], a Roman colony in Phoenicia, where he celebrated his father’s birthday by killing many more captives at elaborate exhibitions.”​—The Jewish War, VII, 37, translated by Paul L. Maier in Josephus: The Essential Writings.

It is no wonder that The Imperial Bible-Dictionary comments: “The later Hebrews looked on the celebration of birth-days as a part of idolatrous worship, a view which would be abundantly confirmed by what they saw of the common observances associated with these days.”

Faithful first-century Christians would not have felt like joining in a custom so darkly presented in the Bible and so gruesomely celebrated by the Romans. Today, sincere Christians realize that the Bible accounts about birthdays were among the things written for their instruction. (Romans 15:4) They avoid celebrating birthdays because such observances bestow undue importance on the individual. More significant, Jehovah’s servants wisely take into account the unfavorable presentation of birthdays in the Bible.

[Picture on page 25]

Arena at Caesarea