Acts 25:5-21

⁵“Your leaders can come with me, and make their accusation against this man, if he has done anything wrong,” he told them.

⁶After staying there with them for no more than eight or ten days, Festus returned to Caesarea. The following day he took his seat as judge, and ordered that Paul be brought before him.

⁷When he came in the Jews that had come from Jerusalem surrounded him and brought many serious charges against him that they couldn't prove.

⁸Paul defended himself, telling them, “I have not sinned at all against the Jewish law, the Temple, or Caesar.”

⁹But Festus, who was looking to gain favor with the Jews, asked Paul, “Are you willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried before me there about these matters?”

¹⁰“I'm standing before Caesar's court to be tried, right where I should be,” Paul replied. “I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.

¹¹If I've committed a crime and have done something that deserves death, I do not ask to be pardoned from a death sentence. But if there's no substance to these accusations they're making against me, then nobody has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹²Festus then conferred with the council, and replied, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go!”

¹³Several days later, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in Caesarea and came to pay their respects to Festus.

¹⁴They were staying some time so Festus presented Paul's case to the king, explaining, “There's a man that Felix left as a prisoner here.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests and leaders came and made accusations against him and asked me to sentence him.

¹⁶I replied that it is not according to Roman law to convict anyone without having them face their accusers and giving them the opportunity to defend themselves against the charges.

¹⁷So when his accusers arrived here, I wasted no time and convened the court the very next day. I ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸However, when the accusers got up they didn't bring charges of criminal acts as I expected.

¹⁹Instead they brought up controversies over religious questions, and over a man called Jesus who was dead but whom Paul insisted was alive.

²⁰Since I was undecided as to how to proceed in investigating such matters, I asked him if he was willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there.

²¹However, Paul appealed for his case to be heard by the emperor, so I ordered him detained until I could send him to Caesar.”