1Then, 5 days later, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem got up and went to Caesarea. One of them was the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies, called Ananias, and another was a lawyer called Tertullus. And there were some other Jewish leaders too. They wanted to blame Paul, and tell the governor that Paul did bad things.
2So the governor told a soldier, “Bring Paul into the court room.” Then Tertullus started to blame Paul. He said, “Your honour, Felix, you have been our governor for a long time, and you have been a good boss for us. You have made a lot of things in this country better, and we have been happy and quiet all the time, with no trouble. So we just want to thank you for everything that you do for us all the time.
4But now, I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I ask you to listen to me for a little while.
5You see, this man is a trouble maker. He makes trouble everywhere he goes. He gets the Jews upset everywhere and they go wild. He is the leader of that mob called the Nazarene mob.
6He even tried to make God’s ceremony house bad, so we grabbed him.
8If you ask him questions you will find out for yourself that everything we are telling you is true.”
9The other Jewish leaders blamed Paul too, and they reckoned that everything Tertullus said was true.
10Then the governor waved with his hand to Paul to let him know that it was his turn to talk. So Paul said, “I know that you have been a judge in this country for a long time, so I’m happy to tell you the true story.
11You see, just 12 days ago I went to Jerusalem to show respect to God. You can check on this yourself and you will find that it is true. That is not enough time for me to make a lot of trouble.
12This mob didn’t see me arguing with anyone at God’s ceremony house, and they didn’t see me upsetting anybody, or making them go wild, not in any Jewish meeting house, and nowhere else in Jerusalem. I never did that anywhere.
13They can’t show you that the things they say are true.
14But I can tell you this, I do show respect to the God that our Jewish tribe always respected. It is true that I’m with the mob called the Jesus Way. The Jewish leaders say that our mob are wrong, but that is not true. And I believe everything in God’s book. I keep our law and I believe everything that God got his men to write in his book.
15And I’m sure that one day God will make all the dead people come alive again, both the people that were good and the people that were bad. These Jewish leaders here agree with me about that, too.
16I always try to do whatever God wants, and I always try to do whatever other people want too, so I always feel good about the things I do.
17Let me tell you what happened. A few years ago I went to some other countries, and then a few days ago I got back to Jerusalem. I brought some money with me to give to poor people there, and I wanted to show respect to God by giving things to him at his ceremony house.
18And I did the ceremony to make myself clean. But some Jews saw me there at God’s ceremony house. I was by myself. There was no mob of people with me, and I was not upsetting anybody or getting them to go wild.
19But it was some other Jews from Asia country that made the people go wild. If those Asia Jews really thought I did something wrong, why didn’t they come here to blame me in front of you? I reckon they know their story isn’t true.
20And this mob here, they had me in their Jewish court in Jerusalem. But can they tell you that they found me guilty of something? No. I told them my story and they didn’t say that I was guilty of anything.
21But there is one thing I did in that court that upset them. I shouted, ‘You are judging me today because I believe that God will make all the dead people become alive again.’ That’s all I said.”
22Then Felix stopped the court. You see, he already knew a lot about the Jesus Way. He said to them all, “That boss of the soldiers in Jerusalem, called Lysias, he will come here later, and I will listen to his story too, and then I will say if Paul is guilty or not.”
23Then he told the boss of his soldiers, “Take Paul back to the jail and make sure that he stays there, but don’t tie him up. And let his friends come to visit him and look after him.”
24A few days later Felix came back with his wife. She was a Jewish woman called Drusilla. Felix told a soldier to bring Paul to them, and they listened to him talk. Paul told them, “We have to believe in Jesus. He is the one God sent to us.”
25And Paul told them about the way God wants people to live, and that he wants us to do what is right, and he wants us to control ourselves. And Paul told them that God will judge everybody one day. Felix heard Paul talking about those things and he got frightened. He said, “Stop, Paul, that’s enough. You can go back to the jail now. Maybe there will be a better time, and then I will get you to come and talk to me again.”
26And Felix hoped that Paul might give him some money to let him get out of jail, so he often sent somebody to get Paul, and he talked with him. But Paul didn’t give Felix any money, so Felix didn’t let him go.
27Felix kept Paul in jail there for 2 years. Then the time came for them to change the boss of that country, and another big boss called Porcius Festus came to take over from him. Felix wanted to keep the Jewish leaders happy, so he didn’t let Paul go out of that jail. Paul was still in jail there when Porcius Festus took over.
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