Acts 28:16-21

¹⁶Then we all came to Rome. The Roman boss that was in charge of the prisoners there let Paul live in a house by himself, but he always had a soldier there to guard him.

¹⁷After Paul was in Rome for 3 days, he sent a message to the Jewish leaders to come and talk with him. So they came, and Paul said to them, “My brothers, I didn’t do anything bad to our people, and I didn’t say anything bad about our Jewish culture. But our leaders in Jerusalem grabbed me, and they started to kill me. Then the boss of the Roman soldiers came and got me, and made me his prisoner.

¹⁸The Roman bosses asked me questions in their court, and they listened to what I said to answer them, and they reckoned that I didn’t do anything bad. So they wanted to let me go.

¹⁹But the Jewish leaders didn’t agree, so I had to ask those bosses to send me to Rome, for the big boss called Caesar to judge me. But I don’t want to make any trouble for my own Jewish people, about anything.

²⁰So I asked you to come here now. I want to meet you and tell you my story. You see, I believe in the man that we are all waiting for. He is the one that God promised to send to us Israel people. But our leaders of Israel didn’t agree with me, and that is why I’m a prisoner now, tied up with this chain.”

²¹Then the Jewish leaders said, “We didn’t get any letters about you from our Jewish friends in Judea country. And some people came here from Judea, but none of them said anything bad about you.