Acts 25:13-22

¹³After several days, King Herod Agrippa arrived at Caesarea, along with his younger sister Bernice. They had come to formally welcome Festus as the new Governor of the province.

¹⁴King Agrippa and Bernice stayed many days in Caesarea. While they were there, Festus told Agrippa about Paul. He said to the king, “There is a man here whom Felix kept in prison while he was governor. He left him there when his time as governor ended.

¹⁵When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the other Jewish elders told me that this man had done many things against their laws. They asked me to condemn him to be executed {judge him so that people could kill him}.

¹⁶But I told them that when someone has been accused of a crime, we Romans do not immediately ◄condemn that person/declare that person to be guilty►. First, we command him to stand before the people who are accusing him and to say whether or not he has done those things. After that, the judge will decide what to do with him.

¹⁷So those Jews came here to Caesarea when I came. I did not delay. The day after we(exc) arrived, after I sat down at the place where I make decisions, I commanded that Paul be brought { soldiers to bring Paul} into the courtroom.

¹⁸The Jewish leaders did accuse him, but the things about which they accused him were not any of the evil crimes about which I thought they would accuse him.

¹⁹Instead, what they argued about with him were some teachings that some Jews believe and others do not believe. They argued about a man whose name was Jesus who had died, but the man they were accusing, whose name is Paul, kept saying, ‘Jesus is alive again.’

²⁰I did not know what questions to ask them, and I did not know how to judge concerning their dispute. So I asked Paul, ‘Are you (sg) willing to go back to Jerusalem and have the dispute between you and these Jews judged there {and let me judge there the dispute between you and these Jews}?’

²¹But Paul answered, ‘ No. I am not willing to go to Jerusalem!

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