Acts 25

1Festus had been in his province only three days when he left Caesarea and went up to Jerusalem. 2The chief priests and the most prominent Jews laid their charges against Paul before him and kept pressing him. 3They asked him for a favor that would harm Paul: to send for him to come to Jerusalem. They meant to lie in wait and kill him on the way. 4Festus replied that Paul was being held at Caesarea, and that he himself would soon be going back there. 5“So let your leading men travel down with me,” he said, “and if there is anything improper about this man, they can accuse him there.”

6He spent no more than eight or ten days with them and then went down to Caesarea. The day after he arrived, he took his place on the judgment seat and had Paul brought in. 7As soon as Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem crowded around him and laid many heavy charges on him, none of which they could prove. 8Paul’s defense was this: “I have committed no offense against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar.” 9Festus, though, was looking to build up favor with the Jews. He turned to Paul and said, “Would you agree to go up to Jerusalem and have these matters judged there, with me presiding?” 10Paul said, “The court I stand before is Caesar’s, and here is where my case belongs. I have wronged the Jews in nothing, and you know this quite well yourself. 11If I am guilty and have done something for which I deserve to die, I do not ask to be spared death. But if there is nothing in what these men accuse me of, no one can hand me over to them as a favor. I appeal to Caesar!” 12Then Festus talked it over with his advisers and replied, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”

13After some days had gone by, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea on a visit of welcome to Festus. 14Their visit lasted many days, and during it Festus told the king about Paul. “Felix left a certain man behind in custody,” he said. 15“When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Jewish elders laid information against him and asked me to condemn him. 16I told them that it is not the Roman way to give anyone up as a favor until the accused person has met the accusers face to face and been given a chance to answer the charge. 17So when they had come here with me, I lost no time. The very next day I took my place on the judgment seat and had the man brought in. 18His accusers stood up, but the charges they brought were not the crimes I had been expecting. 19What they had against him were certain questions about their own religion, and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul asserted to be alive. 20I was unsure how to go about investigating questions like these, and so I asked whether he would like to go to Jerusalem and have the matter judged there. 21But Paul appealed to be held for the emperor’s decision, so I ordered him to be kept in custody until I can send him on to Caesar.” 22Agrippa told Festus, “I have been wanting to hear the man for myself.” “You will hear him tomorrow,” Festus replied.

23So the following day Agrippa and Bernice came with a great show of splendor. They went into the hall of hearing along with the tribunes and the city’s most important men, and Festus gave the order for Paul to be brought. 24Then Festus spoke: “King Agrippa, and all of you who are here with us, look at this man. The entire Jewish people has come to me about him, in Jerusalem and here too, shouting that he has no right to go on living. 25I, for my part, saw that he had committed no crime that merits death. And as he has made an appeal to the emperor himself, I resolved to send him on. 26Yet I have nothing solid to put in a letter about him to my lord. That is why I have brought him out here before you all, King Agrippa, you above all, so that once he has been examined I may have something I can write. 27For to send a prisoner and not make clear what he is charged with seems senseless to me.”