Bernice

Biblical Record

Bernice appears only in the book of Acts, where she is mentioned three times.

• Acts 25:13: King Agrippa and Bernice come to Caesarea to salute Festus, the newly arrived governor. On this occasion Festus tells Agrippa about the case of Paul, who is being held in custody.
• Acts 25:23: On the following day Agrippa and Bernice enter the place of hearing "with great pomp," together with the chief captains and the principal men of the city, and Paul is brought before them. There Paul makes his defense, recounting his conversion and his commission (Acts 26).
• Acts 26:30–31: When the defense is finished, the king, the governor, Bernice, and those who sat with them rise and withdraw, saying to one another, "This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds."

Scripture records no words spoken by Bernice herself, nor does Acts state how she was related to Agrippa.

Significance Within Scripture

Bernice appears as a member of the audience at Paul's hearing. Acts records that the Roman governor and members of the Jewish royal house concluded that Paul had done nothing deserving of death, and Bernice is included among those who reached this conclusion. The scene forms part of the account of Paul's trials under Felix and Festus.

Interpretation and Debated Points

According to sources outside the Bible, especially the writings of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Bernice was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I, who appears as "Herod the king" in Acts 12. She is known to have been the sister of Agrippa II and of Drusilla, the wife of the governor Felix (Acts 24:24). Josephus and Roman historians report that she married several times and later had a close relationship with the Roman general Titus, who afterward became emperor. These sources also preserve rumors from her own time concerning her relationship with her brother Agrippa.

These details come from extrabiblical tradition and are not found in the biblical text. Acts offers no assessment of Bernice's private life. For this reason, the moral judgments that some sermons and commentaries make about Bernice on the basis of these sources should be distinguished from what the biblical text itself states. In addition, readers relying on the text alone sometimes mistake Bernice for Agrippa's wife, whereas the historical sources identify her as his sister. No significant denominational differences in the understanding of Bernice are known.

In the Korean Church

Sermons and Sunday school lessons devoted specifically to Bernice are rare in the Korean church. She is usually mentioned in passing, as one of those who heard Paul's defense, when Acts 26 is preached. In such cases her name often comes up in explanations that contrast Paul in chains with the powerful figures who entered "with great pomp."