I did a message called “Do not celebrate your birthday” about two years explaining the pagan origin of birthday traditions such as birthday cakes, making wishes and blowing out candles and how it is all deeply rooted in paganism; and that the world is just recreating these pagan rituals in our modern times instead of avoiding them. Since making the message two years ago I have received more questions about birthdays, and I have discovered more witnesses and evidence against celebrating birthdays. So we will discuss the violence that occurred on birthdays and where it started.
More violence on birthdays!
As mentioned in the first message there were only two men mentioned in scripture to have celebrated their birthdays and that was Pharaoh and king Herod; and on both of their birthday’s blood was shed. Nowhere in scripture do we see any righteous men or women in scripture celebrating their day of birth, but rather we see men who are not walking in covenant with YAHWEH who do.
Genesis 40:20-22 (Aramaic Peshitta)
“And it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a banquet for all his servants; and he remembered the chief butler and the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler to his position; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hands: but he crucified the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.”
EVERY Egyptian attached much importance to the day, and even to the hour of his birth: and it is probable that in Persia ... each individual kept his birthday with great rejoicing, welcoming all of his friends with all the amusements of society, and a more than usual profusion of the delicacies of the table." - M'Clintock & Strong's Cyclopedia, Vol I, p. 817
History of Birthdays: Why we Celebrate, written in 2021 says:
“While many cultures developed birthday celebrations separately, the EGYPTIANS were the FIRST ONES to get the party started. When Egyptian pharaohs were crowned gods, they were “birthed.” That means the first birthday celebration wasn’t marking the birth of a human, but rather the birth of a god.”
The earliest mention of birthdays was in 3,000 BC in reference to the Pharaoh, which shows its pagan origin of birthdays beginning in Egypt; and our Father YAHWEH warns us walking in the ways of the Egyptians:
Leviticus 18:3-4
“You shall NOT do according to the doings of the land of Egypt wherein you dwelt, neither shall you do according to the doings of the land of Canaan wither I bring you; neither shall you walk in their ordinances. But you shall do My judgements and keep my commandments and walk in them; I am YAHWEH your ELOHIM.”
So when people are celebrating their birthdays they are essentially doing what the children of Yisra’el did in wanting to go back to Egypt and slavery all over again:
Numbers 14:4
“And they said one to another, let us appoint a leader, and let us RETURN to Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 17:16
“But he shall not multiply horses to himself, that he may not cause the people to RETURN TO EGYPT, when his horses have multiplied; since YAHWEH has said to you, YOU SHALL NEVER RETURN THAT WAY AGAIN.”
We cannot go back to Egypt, the house of bondage, and do according to their practices and customs! YAHWEH makes this clear in Leviticus 18:3-4.
Mathew 14:6-11 (Aramaic English New Testament)
“But when the birthday of Herodus occurred, the daughter of Herodias danced before the guests and she pleased Herodus. Because of this, by an oath he swore to her that he would give to her anything that she requested. And because she was taught by her mother, she said, “Give to me the head of Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) on a plate.” And it saddened the king because of the oath and the guests. He commanded that it be given to her and he sent and cut off the head of Yochanan in prison.”
2 Maccabees 6:7
“And in the day of the king’s (Antiochus Epiphanes) birth every month they were brought by bitter constraint to eat the sacrifices; and when the fast of Bacchus was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession to Bacchus.”
Scholars agree that the Greeks learned the pagan celebration of birthdays from the Egyptians as noted above the origin of birthdays began in Egypt; and we see here Antiochus Epiphanes worshipped a pagan Greek deity called Bacchus the deity of fertility, but also notice that he forced Jews to eat meat sacrificed to idols on his birthday EVERY MONTH.
W. Schmidt wrote “Greeks did celebrate their birthdays MONTHLY.” In a book where he talks about the sacrifices and other observances in the Hellenistic monarchies on the monthly birthdays of the kings. And we know this is true based on the scripture from 2 Maccabees 6 about Antiochus celebrating his birthday every month.
The Anchor bible-II Maccabees, Jonathan A. Goldstein, 1983 page 268 writes the following information concerning rituals of birthday celebrations:
“On the MONTHLY BIRTHDAY of the king (Greek king), Jews were cruelly compelled to partake of the meat of pagan sacrifices. When a festival of Dionysus was celebrated, they were forced to put on wreaths of Ivy and march in the procession in honor the deity. A decree was published in the neighboring Greek cities, on the proposal of the citizens of Ptolemais, that they proceed against the Jews in the same manner and compel them to partake of the meat of pagan sacrifices and that they butcher those Jews who refused to go over to the Greek way of life. The G-O-D worship was a birthday ritual. These sacrifices were to demons and these Jews were fully aware of this fact.”
Deuteronomy 32:17
“They sacrificed to demons, not to ELOHIM, to mighty ones they had not known, to newly arrived mighty ones, which your ancestors did not know.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 1979, page 515 says:
“There is evidence for birthday celebrations in Greece and Persia. Herodotus refers to the birthday celebrations of individuals, a special meal (Persian Wars i.133); and the king, an annual royal banquet with the dispensing of GIFTS to his subjects. The pre-Hellenistic Greeks celebrated the birthdays of GOD AND PROMINENT MEN. The Greek genethlia (the science of calculating nativities, or predicting the future events of life from the stars which preside at birth) designated these celebrations, while genesia meant a celebration commemorative of the birthday of a DECEASED IMPORTANT INDIVIDUAL.”
We see birthdays attached to worship of pagan deities and celebration of the dead, which shows that birthdays are on par with Halloween’s celebration of the dead. We also can see the self-idolatry of kings who celebrated their birthday each month and many in the world today are absorbed with themselves becoming lovers of self, and would love to celebrate themselves once a month.
2 Timothy 3:2
“For men will be LOVERS OF THEMSELVES, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy…”
Josephus writes more about the violence that occurred on birthdays: Josephus writes in the “Jewish War, VII)
“While Titus remained at Caesarea, he celebrated his brother Domitian’s birthday with great splendor, putting over 2,500 prisoners (Jewish captives) to death in the 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.”
Josephus again writes in “Against Apion, chapter 26, page 632
“Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the births of our children…”
More scriptural evidence
Yashar (Jasher) 8:1
“And it was in the night that Abram was BORN, that all the servants of Terah, and all the wise men of Nimrod, and his MAGICIANS came and ate and drank in the house of Terah, and they rejoiced with him on that night.”
Now Abraham was a newborn infant and he could not do physically do anything to prevent his dad from celebrating his birth, but we see that Abraham was clearly opposed to his dad being an idol worshipper through scripture when he grew older. The context of this scripture shows that Terah celebrated Abraham’s birthday and he was a known IDOL WORSHIPPER and we see that magicians were celebrating with him; therefore, Terah was familiar with this pagan practice of idolatry/self-idolatry.
Joshua 24:2
“And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says YAHWEH ELOHIM of Yisra’el, your ancestors dwelt on the other side of the river Euphrates in olden times, even Terah, the dad of Abraham and of Nachor; AND THEY SERVED THERE OTHER MIGHTY ONES.”
Jasher 9:7-8
“And the king and all his servants, and Terah with all his household were then the first of those that served elohim of wood and stone. And Terah had twelve elohim of large size, made of wood and stone, after the twelve new moons of the new moon, and every new moon Terah would bring his meat offering and drink offering to his elohim; so Terah did ALL THE DAYS.”
Now let’s see how clearly opposed Abraham was of his dad’s idol worship:
Jubilees 12:1-6
“And it happened in the sixth week, in the seventh year, that Abram said to Terah his father, “father!” And he said, “Behold, here am I, my son.” And he said, What help and profit do we get from those idols which you worship and bow yourself down before? For there is no spirit in them. For they are dumb likenesses, and a misleading of the heart. Do not worship them. Worship the ELOHIM of heaven, who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth, and does everything upon the earth. He has created everything by His word, and all life is from before His face. Why do you worship things that have no spirit in them? For they are the work of human hands, and you carry them on your shoulders. And you have no help from them. But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, and a misleading of the heart to those who worship them. Do not worship them.”
Jasher 10:14-17
“And Abram knew YAHWEH, and he went in His ways and corrections, and YAHWEH his ELOHIM was with him. And Terah his father was still captain of the host of king Nimrod in those days, and he still followed other elohim, of wood and stone. And Abram came to his father’s house and saw twelve elohim standing there in their temples, and the ANGER of Abram was kindled when he saw these images in his father’s house. And Abram said, “As YAHWEH lives these images shall not remain in my father’s house! So shall ELOHIM wo created me do to me, if in three days’ time I do not break them all!”
Although Abraham could not help the fact his dad celebrated his birthday as an infant, we can see Abraham would clearly have been against it as an adult, just as we see he hated his dad idols and destroyed them, he would have hated self-idolatry as well. If you grew up celebrating birthdays and know the truth then it is time to stop, also it’s time to stop making excuses to let your child have fun and “be a child” by allowing them to partake of this evil celebration. It’s the job of the parents to teach the children which way they should go and teach them about YAHWEH and His Ways as commanded in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, not to let the world or the children dictate to the parent to partake in paganism. It is a celebration of the world that originated in Egypt and means you love the world and it’s ways, so let it not be!
James 4:4
“You adulterers, don’t you know that the love of the world is hatred towards ELOHIM? Therefore who chooses to be a lover of this world is the ENEMY OF ELOHIM.”
1 John 2:15
“Love not the world nor anything in it; for whoever loves the world has not the love of the Father in him. For all that is in the world the lust of the body and the lust of the eyes and the pride of the world, which are NOT FROM THE FATHER but from the world itself.”
Which goes back to the very beginning, that there is no mention in scripture of YESHUA, the disciples, or any righteous man in scripture every celebrating their birthdays. Rather we see violence, self-worship, and worship of pagan deities and birthday celebrations of the dead. Does this sound like something a follower of YESHUA should be partaking in? The answer again in “Part 2 of celebrating birthdays” is, NO!
As always may our Father YAHWEH bless you in YESHUA’s Name!