---
title: Genesis 40:20
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-40-20/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-40-20.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Genesis 40:20
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Genesis 40:20

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he held a feast for all his officials, and in their presence he lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

## JW Usage

Genesis 40:20 is one of two passages (the other is Matthew 14:6-10, Herod's birthday) that Reasoning From the Scriptures (pp. 68-70) uses to establish a universal prohibition on birthday celebrations. The argument is descriptive-to-prescriptive: the Bible records only two birthdays, both pagan tyrants, both ending in executions — so Jehovah is reporting unfavourably and Christians should abstain. The rule is then enforced against school classmates, cake, candles, and family gifts.

## Protestant Usage

The Watchtower's inference is the incidental fallacy — treating what happens in a narrative as what God prescribes. Pharaoh hanged his baker at a feast; Herod killed John the Baptist at a feast. The common factor is the tyranny and the oath, not the cake. Counter- texts in the same canon: Jeremiah 20:14 and Job 3:1 both curse the day of birth — an act that presupposes the day was normally blessed. Luke 1:14 prophesies that at John the Baptist's birth "many will rejoice." Genesis 40:20 tells us Pharaoh was a ruthless ruler; it tells us nothing about what Jehovah forbids. The authoritative ruling on day-observance is Romans 14:5-6: "the one who observes the day observes it to Jehovah" — in the Watchtower's own translation. Paul decides the question; the Governing Body overrules him.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Jeremiah 20:14 / Job 3:1 [Practice]