Acts 25:18-24

¹⁸The Jewish leaders stood up and blamed him, but they didn’t blame him for anything really bad, like I thought they would.

¹⁹They only talked about things that some Jews believe and other Jews don’t believe. They argued about a dead man called Jesus, and Paul kept saying, ‘Jesus is alive.’

²⁰I really didn’t know the right way to handle this court. I didn’t know any questions to ask Paul, so I said to him, ‘Are you happy to go to Jerusalem and let me judge you there?’

²¹But Paul said, ‘No, I’m not happy to go to Jerusalem. I want that biggest boss called Caesar, to judge me.’ So I told my soldiers to guard Paul here, until I can send him to Caesar, in Rome.”

²²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “Look, I’d like to hear that man myself.” Festus said, “All right, I’ll let you hear him tomorrow.”

²³The next day Agrippa and his young sister Bernice came into the court room. Some bosses of soldiers came with them, and the leaders of Caesarea came with them too. There was a lot of ceremony for them as they came in. Then Festus told his soldiers, “Bring Paul into the court room.” So they brought him in.

²⁴Then Festus said, “Big boss Agrippa, and all of you that are here now, look at this man. A lot of Jews in Jerusalem, and the Jews here in Caesarea too, they want me to say this man is guilty. They really shouted at me. They said, ‘You have to kill him now.’