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[309]
ABOUT this very time king Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to congratulate
Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egypt from Nero; but
as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem, and saw the wicked practices
of the soldiers, she was sorely affected at it, and frequently sent the
masters of her horse and her guards to Florus, and begged of him to leave
off these slaughters; but he would not comply with her request, nor have
any regard either to the multitude of those already slain, or to the nobility
of her that interceded, but only to the advantage he should make by this
plundering; nay, this violence of the soldiers brake out to such a degree
of madness, that it spent itself on the queen herself; for they did not
only torment and destroy those whom they had caught under her very eyes,
but indeed had killed herself also, unless she had prevented them by flying
to the palace, and had staid there all night with her guards, which she
had about her for fear of an insult from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then
at Jerusalem, in order to perform a vow 1
which she had made to God; for it is usual with those that had been either
afflicted with a distemper, or with any other distresses, to make vows;
and for thirty days before they are to offer their sacrifices, to abstain
from wine, and to shave the hair of their head. Which things Bernice was
now performing, and stood barefoot before Florus's tribunal, and besought
him [to spare the Jews]. Yet could she neither have any reverence paid
to her, nor could she escape without some danger of being slain herself.
1 This vow which Bernice (here and elsewhere called queen, not only as daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the Great, and Agrippa junior, but the widow of Herod king of Chalcis) came now to accomplish at Jerusalem was not that of a Nazarite, but such a one as religious Jews used to make, in hopes of any deliverance from a disease, or other danger, as Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty days' abode at Jerusalem, for fasting and preparation against the oblation of a proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were wholly voluntary in this great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses relating to Nazarites, Numbers 6., and is very different from St. Paul's time for such preparation, which was but one day, Acts 21:26. So we want already the continuation of the Antiquities to afford us light here, as they have hitherto done on so many occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this age the traditions of the Pharisees had obliged the Jews to this degree of rigor, not only as to these thirty days' preparation, but as to the going barefoot all that time, which here Bernice submitted to also. For we know that as God's and our Savior's yoke is usually easy, and his burden comparatively light, in such positive injunctions, Matthew 11:30, so did the scribes and Pharisees sometimes "bind upon men heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne," even when they themselves "would not touch them with one of their fingers," Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:46. However, Noldius well observes, De Herod. No. 404, 414, that Juvenal, in his sixth satire, alludes to this remarkable penance or submission of this Bernice to Jewish discipline, and jests upon her for it; as do Tacitus, Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius mention her as one well known at Rome.--Ibid.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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