The Public Face of Agrippa and Bernice

It is time to look at the public relationship between Marcus and Berenike more carefully. As said, under a very early form of the Rabbinic halachah, they could marry if there was no sex, but had to get divorced. My information at the moment is that the divorce is not a requirement of the Torah, but a Rabbinic decree. That means it could not be enforced by any religious authority if Agrippa and Berenike did not accept their authority. My understanding is that not even the Sanhedrin can force the king to do anything that is only a requirement of one faction or party, as opposed to the requirements of the Torah. Anyway, there is a long long record of kings ignoring or removing annoying Pharisees. I doubt that the Sadducees would have been concerned. I think they might have approved, if only to nark the Pharisees, but I have to look into this further.

The question then is, how did Agrippa and Berenike present themselves? It seems to me that they presented themselves as brother and sister and co-regents. The fact that they were married would have been known but not part of their self-presentation as rulers. I know the story in Acts is fiction, but the author must have thought he had realistically portrayed their joint appearance as rulers.