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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 669. Bernice's Early Life
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Bernice's Early Life
Her beauty, her rank, the splendour of her jewels, the interest and curiosity attaching to her race and her house, made her a prominent figure in the society of the capital; and a diamond, however lustrous and valuable, was enhanced in price if it was known that it had once sparkled on the finger of Bernice, and had been a present to her from her brother. The relations between the two gave rise to the darkest rumours, which gained credence because there was nothing to contradict them in the bearing or character of the defamed persons.
Such scandal was caused by her conduct, that even Rome, the Paris of the first century, began to cry, “Shame.” And it was arranged that she should contract a third marriage. A husband was found without difficulty, in Polemo II., king of Cilicia, the last independent prince in Asia Minor. She was still young and beautiful, and, what seemed more to the purpose in the estimation of Polemo, she was wealthy. With some still lingering remnant of religious feeling, she insisted upon her husband submitting to the outward rite of the Jewish religion, which he was quite willing to do, and accordingly became nominally a Jew, though St. Paul, writing a few years after, and bearing such cases in mind, would have said, “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh” (Rom_2:28). It is possible that Polemo and Bernice were in Asia Minor about the year 52, when St. Paul was travelling in the same region.
The union, however, did not last for any length of time, for Polemo was a man of inferior talents, and Bernice, through mere wantonness, craved for a life of greater excitement. She accordingly deserted her husband, and went back to her brother.
Bernice, in her various marriages and other connexions, was but one woman out of many. She had learned those evil ways from the “smart” ladies in the corrupt society at Rome, where such women as Messalina and Agrippina shone as brilliant stars in a black sky of deepest hue. The profligacy of women at that time was incredible. Luxury and extravagance, combined with immorality, were so rife, that marriage itself became discredited. Divorce indeed was easy, but marriage had become hateful. The holy associations of home, as they had existed under the ancient republic, had disappeared from society.
What does our country need?…
Not jewelled dolls with one another vying
For palms of beauty, elegance, and grace.
But we want women, strong of soul, yet lowly,
With that rare meekness, born of gentleness,
Women whose lives are pure and clean and holy,
The women whom all little children bless.
Brave, earnest women, helpful to each other,
With finest scorn for all things low and mean;
Women who hold the names of wife and mother
Far nobler than the title of a Queen.
Oh, these are they who mould the men of story,
These mothers, oft-times shorn of grace and youth,
Who, worn and weary, ask no greater glory
Than making some young soul the home of truth;
Who sow in hearts all fallow for the sowing
The seeds of virtue and of scorn for sin,
And, patient, watch the beauteous harvest growing
And weed out tares which crafty hands cast in.
Women who do not hold the gift of beauty
As some rare treasure to be bought and sold,
But guard it as a precious aid to duty-
The outer framing of the inner gold;
Women who, low above their cradles bending,
Let flattery's voice go by, and give no heed,
While their pure prayers like incense are ascending;
These are our country's pride, our country's need.1 [Note: E. W. Wilcox, Maurine and other Poems, 205.]