Acts 25

¹Festus therefore, having arrived in the province, went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea after three days.

²The chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought formal charges against Paul before him and were urging him,

³requesting a favor against him, that Festus might summon him to Jerusalem, while planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

⁴Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to depart there shortly.

⁵'Let those therefore among you who are able,' he says, 'come down with me, and if there is anything improper about this man, let them bring charges against him.'

⁶Having spent among them no more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day, seating himself on the judgment seat, he ordered Paul to be brought.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against Paul, which they were not able to prove.

⁸while Paul said in his defense that he had sinned neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar in anything.

⁹But Festus, wishing to curry favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, 'Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me concerning these things?'

¹⁰But Paul said, 'I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well.'

¹¹If then I am in the wrong and have done anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if there is nothing to the charges these men bring against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!

¹²Then Festus, having conferred with the council, answered, 'You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.'

¹³When some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus.

¹⁴As they were spending several days there, Festus laid before the king the matters concerning Paul, saying, 'There is a certain man left as a prisoner by Felix,'

¹⁵concerning whom, when I arrived in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges, asking for a verdict against him.

¹⁶To whom I answered that it is not the custom of Romans to hand over any person to destruction before the accused has his accusers face to face and receives an opportunity of defense regarding the charge.

¹⁷So when they had come together here, without making any delay, on the next day I took my seat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge of the kind of evil deeds I had expected,

¹⁹but they had certain controversial questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died, whom Paul kept asserting to be alive.

²⁰Being at a loss about how to investigate these matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there concerning these things.

²¹But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the Emperor, I commanded him to be held until I send him up to Caesar.

²²Agrippa said to Festus, 'I would like to hear the man myself.' 'Tomorrow,' he said, 'you will hear him.'

²³So on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp and they had entered into the audience hall together with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city, and at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said: King Agrippa and all you men who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole multitude of the Jews petitioned me both in Jerusalem and here, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But I myself found that he had done nothing worthy of death, and when he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶concerning whom I have nothing definite to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write.

²⁷for it seems unreasonable to me, in sending a prisoner, not also to indicate clearly the charges against him.