Acts 25

1 So Festus, having come into the province, went up after three days to Jerusalem from Caesarea; 2 and the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews laid their charge against Paul before him, and they were urging him, 3 asking a favor against him — that he would send for him to Jerusalem — while they made an ambush to do away with him along the road. 4 So Festus answered that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go out there shortly. 5 “So let those among you who are able,” he says, “come down with me and accuse him, if there is anything out of place in the man.”

6 And after spending among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and on the next day he sat on the judgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought. [a] 7 And when he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many heavy charges which they were not able to prove, 8 while Paul said in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews nor against the temple nor against Caesar have I sinned in anything.” 9 But Festus, wanting to lay up a favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there before me about these things?” 10 And Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done the Jews no wrong, as you also know very well. 11 If then I am doing wrong and have done anything worthy of death, I do not beg off from dying; but if there is nothing to the things these men accuse me of, no one can hand me over to them as a favor. I appeal to Caesar.” [b] 12 Then Festus, after conferring with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go.”

13 And when some days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. 14 And as they were spending more days there, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a certain man left behind by Felix as a prisoner, 15 about whom, when I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid their charge, asking for a sentence against him. 16 To them I answered that it is not the custom of Romans to hand over any man as a favor before the accused meets his accusers face to face and is given a chance to defend himself against the charge. † 17 So when they had come together here, I made no delay: on the next day I sat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought. 18 The accusers stood up about him and were bringing no charge of the evils I had been suspecting, 19 but they had certain disputed questions with him about their own religion, and about a certain Jesus who had died, whom Paul kept asserting to be alive. [c] 20 And being at a loss how to look into these things, I asked whether he would want to go to Jerusalem and be judged there about them. 21 But when Paul appealed to be kept for the decision of the Augustus, I ordered him to be kept until I could send him up to Caesar.” [d] 22 And Agrippa said to Festus, “I could have wished to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he says, “you will hear him.”

23 So on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice came with great show and entered the audience hall, along with commanders of a thousand and the men of prominence in the city, and when Festus had given the order, Paul was brought in. [e] 24 And Festus says, “King Agrippa, and all you men present here with us, you see this man, about whom the whole multitude of the Jews petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 But I found that he had done nothing worthy of death; and when this man himself appealed to the Augustus, I decided to send him. 26 About him I have nothing certain to write to my lord; and so I have brought him out before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that when the examination has taken place I may have something to write. [f] 27 For it seems to me unreasonable, in sending a prisoner, not also to indicate the charges against him.”