In the Presence of Queen Berenice

If I could spend one hour in the presence of one historic figure, it would not be Paul of Tarsus, but, Queen Berenice who took the Nazarite Vow. Here is the first question I would ask her;

“What was Saint Paul like?”

“Saint – who?” would be her reply, because I am certain she never met that little bowlegged man with the uni-brow. Paul told the greatest lie in mortal-human history, and has gotten away with it – until now! Forget about his lies in New Testament fairytale history. Like a huge drop of black ink from a careless scribe’s quill, on to the page of real history Paul’s great lie has fallen, like a dark star. Splat!

Paul is not satisfied with being exonerated by Jesus-God Himself – after he died – and now puts himself in the presence of kings and queens who are kin to Philo, and who married into Roman Royalty. Emperor Titus took Berenice to Rome and wanted to marry her after the fall of the temple, but, the people were against it.

Paul claims he is on trial for teaching the resurrection. Whatever, Berenice would be more interested as to why he tortured and murdered Jewish women – for starters – because Berenice would soon put herself in harms way to protect Jewish saints from Florus’ murderous rampage. There is no statute of limitations, thus Paul would be executed almost on the spot after he confesses his murderous crimes to Berenice and her brother, King Agrippa. Paul would also be tried for teaching the Laws of Moses are no good anymore.

This is a murderous heretic, folks! Only the real Anti-Christ would attempt such deception, where Paul makes himself greater then kings, queens, and emperors! Paul is caprturing these earthly crowns – with a lie! Paul is even going after God’s crown! This makes me wonder if he was an agent of emperor Caligula, who murdered many if his kindred – and declared himself a god. He tried to put a naked statue of himself in the Holy of Holies!

Jon Presco

There are certain “defining moments” that forever change the identity and destiny of an individual, a movement, a nation. The moment may be as commonplace as the birth of a child or as unique as the extraordinary British defeat of the Spanish Armada. The defining moment for all of human history and for every individual is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Prisoner Paul boldly proclaims this before Festus, Agrippa and Bernice in the final missionary preaching in Acts. To embrace this proclamation is to permit the purpose of Luke-Acts to be fulfilled in one’s life (Lk 1:1-4).A King’s Curiosity (25:13-22)

Marcus Julius Alexander (flourished 1st century, died before August 44) was a distinguished and wealthy Alexandrian Jewish Merchant.

[edit] Ancestry and Family
Marcus was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He was either born in the late reign of Emperor Augustus 27 BC-14 or the reign of the Emperor Tiberius 14–37. Marcus was born as the second son to Alexander the Alabarch, a wealthy Jewish Pro-Roman aristocrat and his brother was Tiberius Julius Alexander. His paternal uncles was the Jewish Historian, Philosopher Philo and Lysimachus.
He came from an aristocratic family who lived in Alexandria for generations. His ancestors and family were contemporaries to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the rule of the Seleucid Empire. Marcus came from a family who were noble, honourable and wealthy. It was either his paternal grandfather or paternal great grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the Priesthood in Judea; Hasmonean Dynasty; Herodian Dynasty and Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome.
Marcus along with his family were contemporaries to the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the lives of The Apostles of Jesus. Marcus along with his brother received a thorough education. They were educated in the Egyptian, Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures, particularly in the traditions of Judaism, the study of the Old Testament and in Greek Philosophy.

Marcus with his brother followed their father into business, becoming partners in an import-export firm. The Petrie Ostraca, mentions Marcus’ activities at Myos Hormos and Berenice Troglodytica, ports located in the Red Sea between 37-44. He had agent called Hermias, who represented him at an unnamed port.
Marcus’ father and Herodian King Agrippa I were long time friends. Agrippa I as an elegant way to give something back to Alexander the Alabarch, who supported Agrippa I in the past, arranged for his daughter princess Berenice to marry Marcus. In 41, Marcus married Berenice as her first husband. This marriage shows that there were good relations between Marcus’ family and the Herodian Dynasty.
Unfortunately, this marriage was short lived as Marcus died before August 44. Marcus had no children with Berenice. Berenice’s father later arranged for her to marry her paternal uncle Herod of Chalcis in 44.

Herod of Chalcis (d. 48 AD), also known as Herod V, was a son of Aristobulus IV, and the grandson of Herod the Great, Roman client king of Judaea. He was the brother of Herod Agrippa I and Herodias.
He was vested the rulership of Chalkis, a kingdom north of Judaea, as tetrarch. After the death of his brother, he was also given responsibility for the Temple in Jerusalem, as well as the appointment of the Temple’s High Priest. Ananias was appointed by him.[citation needed]
His first wife was his cousin, Mariamne.[1] She bore him a son, who was also named Aristobulus, and who eventually became ruler of Chalcis.
After Mariamne’s death, he married his niece Berenice, with whom he had two sons, Berenicianus and Hyrcanus.
After his death the kingdom was given to Herod Agrippa II.

Ananias son of Nedebaios (Josephus, Antiquites xx. 5. 2), called “Ananias ben Nebedeus” in the Book of Acts, was a high priest who presided during the trial of Paul at Jerusalem and Caesarea. He officiated as high priest from about AD 47 to 59. Quadratus, governor of Syria, accused him of being responsible for acts of violence. He was sent to Rome for trial (AD 52), but was acquitted by the emperor Claudius. Being a friend of the Romans, he was murdered by the people at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War.

Berenice of Cilicia, also known as Julia Berenice and sometimes spelled Bernice (28 AD – ?), was a Jewish client queen of the Roman Empire during the second half of the 1st century. Berenice was a member of the Herodian Dynasty that ruled the Roman province of Judaea between 39 BC and 92 AD. She was the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I and a sister of King Herod Agrippa II.
What little is known about the life and background of Berenice has been handed down to us through the New Testament book of Acts, the 25th chapter. Also the early historian Flavius Josephus, who detailed a history of the Jewish people and wrote an account of the Jewish Rebellion of 67. It is for her tumultuous love life however that Berenice is primarily known today. After a number of failed marriages throughout the 40s, she spent much of the remainder of her life at court of her brother Agrippa II, amidst rumors the two were carrying on an incestuous relationship. During the First Jewish-Roman War, she began a love affair with the future emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. Her unpopularity among the Romans however compelled Titus to dismiss Berenice upon his accession as emperor in 79. When he died two years later, so did Berenice disappear from the historical record.

Like her brother, Berenice was a client ruler of the parts of the Roman Empire that lie in the present-day Syria. The Acts of the Apostles records that during this time, in 60, Paul of Tarsus appeared before their court at Caesarea.[10]
[edit] Jewish-Roman wars
[edit] Great Jewish revolt

Map of 1st century Judaea.
In 64 emperor Nero appointed Gessius Florus as procurator of the Judaea Province. During his administration, the Jews were systematically discriminated in favour of the Greek population of the region.[11] Tensions quickly rose to civil unrest when Florus plundered the treasury of the Temple of Jerusalem under the guise of imperial taxes.[11] Following riots, the instigators were arrested and crucified by the Romans. Appalled at the treatment of her countrymen, Berenice travelled to Jerusalem in 66 to personally petition Florus to spare the Jews, but not only did he refuse to comply with her requests, Berenice herself was nearly killed during skirmishes in the city.[12] Likewise a plea for assistance to the legate of Syria, Cestius Gallus, met with no response.[13]
To prevent Jewish violence from further escalating, Agrippa assembled the populace and delivered a tearful speech to the crowd in the company of his sister,[13] but the Jews alienated their sympathies when the insurgents burned down their palaces.[14] They fled the city to Galilee where they later gave themselves up to the Romans. Meanwhile Cestius Gallus moved into the region with the twelfth legion, but was unable to restore order and suffered defeat at the battle of Beth-Horon, forcing the Romans to retreat from Jerusalem.[15]
Emperor Nero then appointed Vespasian to put down the rebellion, who landed in Judaea with fifth and tenth legions in 67.[16] He was later joined by his son Titus at Ptolemais, who brought with him the fifteenth legion.[17] With a strength of 60,000 professional soldiers, the Romans quickly swept across Galilee and by 69 marched on Jerusalem.[17]
[edit] Affair with Titus
It was during this time that Berenice met and fell in love with Titus, who was eleven years her junior.[18] The Herodians sided with the Flavians during the conflict, and later in 69, the Year of the Four Emperors—when the Roman Empire saw the quick succession of the emperors Galba, Otho and Vitellius—Berenice reportedly used all her wealth and influence to support Vespasian on his campaign to become emperor.[19] When Vespasian was declared emperor on December 21 of 69, Titus was left in Judaea to finish putting down the rebellion. The war ended in 70 with the destruction of the Second Temple and the sack of Jerusalem, with approximately 1 million dead, and 97,000 taken captive by the Romans.[20] Triumphant, Titus returned to Rome to assist his father in the government, while Berenice stayed behind in Judaea.
It took four years until they reunited, when she and Agrippa came to Rome in 75. The reasons for this long absence are unclear, but have been linked to possible opposition to her presence by Gaius Licinius Mucianus, a political ally of emperor Vespasian who died sometime between 72 and 78.[21] Agrippa was given the rank of praetor, while Berenice resumed her relationship with Titus, living with him at the palace and reportedly acting in every respect as his wife.[22] The ancient historian Cassius Dio writes that Berenice was at the height of her power during this time,[22] and if it can be any indication as to how influential she was, Quintilian records an anecdote in his Institutio Oratoria where, to his astonishment, he found himself pleading a case on Berenice’s behalf where she herself presided as the judge.[23] The Roman populace however perceived the Eastern Queen as an intrusive outsider, and when the pair was publicly denounced by Cynics in the theatre, Titus caved in to the pressure and sent her away.[22]
Upon the accession of Titus as emperor in 79, she returned to Rome, but was quickly dismissed amidst a number of popular measures of Titus to restore his reputation with the populace.[24] It is possible that he intended to send for her at a more convenient time.[21] However after reigning barely two years as emperor, he suddenly died on September 13, 81.[25]
It is not known what happened to Berenice after her final dismissal from Rome.[21] Her brother Agrippa died around 92, and with him the Herodian Dynasty came to an end.
In modern history, her aspirations as a potential empress of Rome have led to her being described as a ‘miniature Cleopatra’.[26]
[edit] Berenice in books
Berenice appears in the Roman Mysteries book series. She shows up in The Enemies of Jupiter, is mentioned in The Assassins of Rome and plays a fairly prominent role in Lion Feuchtwanger’s historical novel, Josephus (The Jewish War).

Alexander the Alabarch

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Alexander the Alabarch, full name Tiberius Julius Alexander Major (Major, Latin for the elder, 15 BC/10 BC  – 69 AD) was an Alexandrian Jewish aristocrat who was one of the pro-Roman leaders of the Alexandrian Jewish community and one of the brothers of the exegete and philosopher Philo.
[edit] Ancestry and family
Alexander was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. He came from an aristocratic family who lived in Alexandria for generations. His ancestors and family were contemporaries to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the rule of the Seleucid Empire. Although the names of his parents are unknown, Alexander came from a family who were noble, honourable and wealthy. According to Josephus (Antiquities 20.100), Alexander surpassed his fellow local Jewish citizens in Alexandria in both ancestry and wealth.
It was either his father or paternal grandfather who was granted Roman citizenship from the Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar. Alexander’s eldest brother was Philo and according to Philo On Animals, Alexander had another brother called Lysimachus. His ancestors and family had social ties and connections to the priesthood in Judea, the Hasmonean dynasty, the Herodian Dynasty, and the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome.
[edit] Life
What is known of Alexander’s life comes from referenced sources from Philo, the historian Josephus and the New Testament of the Bible (he is mentioned in Acts chapter 4). Alexander was a contemporary to the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the lives of The Apostles of Jesus.
Alexander along with his brothers received a thorough education. They were educated in the Egyptian, Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures, particularly in the traditions of Judaism, the study of the Old Testament and in Greek philosophy. He was devoted to Judaism and to his ancestral practices.
At some unknown date, Alexander was appointed as Alabarch of Alexandria. The alabarch was a magistrate responsible for customs in Alexandria. Later Alexander became an administrator for the extensive land estates in Egypt, owned by Antonia Minor. Antonia Minor was a Roman noblewoman, who was the niece of Emperor Augustus and the youngest daughter of the triumvir Mark Antony. Alexander had been a long-time friend of Antonia Minor’s youngest child, the future Emperor Claudius.
In 35, the Herodian prince and future King Agrippa I, was broke and needed to travel to Italy. Agrippa sailed to Alexandria and begged Alexander to loan him 200,000 drachmas. Alexander loaned Agrippa the money and the prince repaid the money back to Alexander in 41.
As an indication of Alexander’s great wealth, he had nine gates at the Temple in Jerusalem overlaid with massive plates of silver and gold. This was most probably done as a gift to the temple and could be a sign that Alexander was on good terms with the high priests at the Temple.
Between 37 and 41, the Emperor Caligula, in a fit of anger for an unknown reason, ordered Alexander to be imprisoned in Rome. This could be connected to Philo’s embassy to Caligula in Rome in 38, when there was rising racial tensions in Alexandria. After the death of Caligula in 41, his paternal uncle Claudius became Emperor.
Claudius released Alexander from prison and at unknown date in Claudius’ reign, Claudius promoted Alexander to Equestrian rank. Alexander married an unnamed Roman woman and they had two sons: Tiberius Julius Alexander and Marcus Julius Alexander. In 41, Alexander with Agrippa I arranged for their children to marry each other. His second son Marcus Julius married one of the daughters of Agrippa, who was princess Berenice. Unfortunately, Alexander’s second son died in 43 or 44 and left no children from his marriage to Berenice.

She was six years of age at the time of her father’s death at Caesarea in 44. Her father had betrothed her to Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes, first son of King Antiochus IV of Commagene,[1] with a stipulation from her father that Epiphanes should embrace the Jewish religion.[2] The prince in the end refused to abide by his promise to do so, and the marriage had still not been contracted on her father’s death. On Agrippa’s death:
“
…the inhabitants of Caesarea and of Sebaste forgot the kindnesses he had bestowed on them, and acted the part of the bitterest enemies; for they cast such reproaches upon the deceased as are not fit to be spoken of; and so many of them as were then soldiers, which were a great number, went to his house, and hastily carried off the statues of [Agrippa I]’s daughters, and all at once carried them into the brothels, and when they had set them on the brothel roofs, they abused them to the utmost of their power, and did such things to them as are too indecent to be related. They also laid themselves down in public places, and celebrated general feastings, with garlands on their heads, and with ointments and libations to Charon, and drinking to one another for joy that the king was expired, not only unmindful of Agrippa, who had extended his liberality to them in abundance, but also of his grandfather Herod the Great, who had himself rebuilt their cities, and had raised them havens and temples at vast expense.[3]
”

Once Drusilla’s brother, Herod Agrippa II, had been assigned the tetrachy of Herod Philip I (along with Batanea, Trachonites and Abila) in around 49/50, he broke off her engagement to Epiphanes and gave her in marriage to Gaius Julius Azizus, Priest King of Emesa, who, in order to obtain her hand, consented to be circumcised.[2] Herod also at around this time married Mariamne to her betrothed, Gaius the prince of Commagene.
[edit] Felix
It appears that it was shortly after her first marriage was contracted that Antonius Felix, the Roman procurator of Judaea, met Drusilla, probably at her brother’s court (Berenice, the elder sister, lived with her brother at this time, and thus Drusilla probably did too). Felix was struck by the great beauty of Drusilla, and determined to make her his (second) wife. In order to persuade her, a practising Jew, to divorce her Jewish husband and marry him, a pagan, he took the following steps:
“
While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon[4] (Note: in some manuscripts, Atomos), a Jewish friend of his, by birth a Cypriot, who pretended to be a magician. Simon endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry Felix; and promised, that if she would not refuse Felix, he would make her a happy woman. Accordingly she acted unwisely and, because she longed to avoid her sister Berenice’s envy (for Drusilla was very ill-treated by Berenice because of Drusilla’s beauty) was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix.[5]
”

She was about twenty-two years of age when she appeared at Felix’s side, during St. Paul’s captivity at Caesarea – Acts 24:24 reports her thus:
“Several days later Felix came [back into court] with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess.”
Acts gives no further information on her subsequent life, though Josephus states that they had a son named Marcus Antonius Agrippa and a daughter Antonia Clementiana. Their son perished together with his mother Drusilla, along with noted Roman historian Pliny the Elder plus most of the populations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[6] For further information about the family of Felix and Drusilla, see Antonius Felix.

Emesa was famous for the worship of the strong ancient pagan cult El-Gebal, also known as Elagabal.[3] The city was renowned for El-Gebal’s place of worship the Temple of the Sun. El-Gebal was worshipped in the form of a conical black stone.[4] El-Gebal was the Aramaic name for the Syrian Sun God and means God of the Mountain.[5]