XXI. KING AGRIPPA AND BERNICE

Acts 25:23.—“And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus’ commandment Paul was brought forth.”

It might seem extraordinary that Bernice should be present on such an occasion—that a woman should take any share in an affair, one would have supposed, foreign to her, and exclusively belonging to the other sex. But here again we have another proof of the veracity and accuracy of the sacred writings. For when Agrippa (the same Agrippa) endeavoured to combat the spirit of rebellion which was beginning to show itself amongst the Jews, and addressed them in that famous speech, given in Josephus, which throws so much light on the power and provincial polity of the Romans, he first of all “placed his sister Bernice (the same Bernice) in a conspicuous situation, upon the house of the Asamonæans, which was above the gallery, at the passage to the upper city, where the bridge joins the temple to the gallery;” and then he spoke to the people. And when his oration was ended, we read that “both he and Iris sister shed tears, and so repressed much violence in the multitude.”—(Bell. Jud. ii. 16. § 3.)

There is another passage, occurring in the life of Josephus, which is no less valuable; for it serves to show yet further the political importance of Bernice, and how much she was in the habit of acting with Agrippa on all public occasions. One Philip, who was governor of Gamala, and the country about it, under Agrippa, had occasion to communicate with the latter, probably on the subject of his escape from Jerusalem, where he had been recently in danger, and of his return to his own station. The transaction is thus described:—

“He wrote to Agrippa and Bernice, and gave the letters to one of his freedmen to carry to Varus, who at that time was procurator of the kingdom, which the sovereigns (i.e., the king and his sister-wife) had entrusted him withal, while they were gone to Berytus to meet Gessius. When Varus had received these letters of Philip, and had learned that he was in safety, he was very uneasy at it, supposing that he should appear useless to the sovereigns (basileusin) now Philip was come.”—(Josephus’s Life, § 11.)