BIRTHDAY . Birthday celebrations are mentioned only in connexion with royalty, viz. Pharaoh’s birthday ( Genesis 40:20 ), the monthly celebration of that of Antiochus Epiphanes ( 2Ma 6:7 ), and the birthday feast given by Herod Antipas ( Matthew 14:6 , Mark 6:21 ). The ‘day of our king,’ to which Hosea refers ( Hosea 7:5 ), may have been the anniversary either of the king’s birth or of his accession. Some authorities ( e.g. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus , i. 672) regard Herod’s feast as celebrating the anniversary of his accession a view based on a mistaken exegesis of the Talmudic passage Aboda zara I. 3 (see the full discussion in Schürer, GJV [Note: JV Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes.] 3 i. 438 441).
A. R. S. Kennedy.