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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 668. Bernice
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Literature
Bird, R., Paul of Tarsus (1900), 452.
Buss, S., Roman Law and History in the New Testament (1901), 262.
Conybeare, W. J., and J. S. Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul (1870), 621.
Farrar, F. W., The Herods (1898), 207.
Farrar, F. W., The Life and Work of St. Paul, ii. (1879) 352, 598.
Hausrath, A., A History of the New Testament Times: The Time of the Apostles, iv. (1895) 97, 194.
Howson, J. S., Scenes from the Life of St. Paul (1909), 182.
Johnston, C. N., St. Paul and his Mission to the Roman Empire (1909), 160.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xix. v. 1, xx. vii. 3.
Josephus, Jewish War, ii. xv. 1, xvi. 3.
Lewin, T., The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, ii. (1875) 109, 174.
Luckock, H. M., Footprints of the Apostles as traced by Saint Luke in the Acts, ii. (1905) 266.
Maclaren, A., Expositions: The Acts of the Apostles xiii.-end (1907), 322.
Mathews, S., A History of New Testament Times in Palestine (1899), 197.
Milman, H. H., The History of the Jews, ii. (1866) 183.
Morrison, G. H., The Footsteps of the Flock (1904), 364.
Pounder, R. W., Saint Paul and his Cities (1913), 196, 202.
Robertson, A. T., Epochs in the Life of St. Paul (1909), 250.
Schürer, E., A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, i. ii. (1890) 195.
And the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them.- Act_26:30.
When Agrippa i. died in agony at Cæsarea, while celebrating the games there in honour of the Emperor Claudius, on his return from the conquest of Britain, he left four children-Agrippa the younger, his only son, and three daughters, Bernice, Mariamne, and Drusilla. Agrippa was at that time seventeen years of age, and was in detention as a kind of hostage at Rome, at the court of Claudius, who took charge of his education. Bernice was sixteen, and a little before had married her paternal uncle, Herod of Chalcis. Mariamne at her father's death was only ten years of age, and Drusilla was six. The latter grew up to be one of the most celebrated beauties of the day. The young Agrippa had learnt the vices of the age at the Imperial Court, but profligacy is the only charge that history has recorded against him. He is described by Josephus as a man of extraordinary accomplishments. His three sisters were all of them but indifferent characters, and, indeed, the single favourable trait mentioned of any one of them is, that at the commencement of the Jewish war Bernice, as the representative of her family, in the absence of her brother Agrippa, had the courage and patriotism to present herself barefooted as a suppliant before the tribunal of Gessius Florus, the tyrannical procurator, to intercede for the lives of her countrymen, whose blood he was then recklessly shedding.
Bernice was the Lucrezia Borgia of the Herodian family. She was beautiful, like all the princesses of her house, but she was one of the most profligate women of a profligate age, exceeding even Cleopatra in her sensuality and shamelessness. It is not a pleasant career to contemplate.
Satan said to the Almighty, “I wish for a subtle snare wherein to entrap men”; God showed him silver and gold and horses;
Satan said, “Yes, these are good,” but did not seem satisfied.
Then God showed him mines full of jewels, but he said, “Give me more, O Generous One.” Then He showed him costly cloths and silks and wines; but he said, “I require more than these, for men can break these chains.” Then He showed him the beauty of women, which deprives men of reason and self-control. Satan began to dance with joy and said, “Give me that! now I shall succeed!”1 [Note: Jalaluddin Rumi, in A Little Book of Eastern Wisdom, 62.]