Acts 25–26

Chapter 25

Paul before Festus

¹Festus then, having arrived in ^athe province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from ^bCaesarea.

²And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews ^abrought charges against Paul, and they were urging him,

³requesting a ¹concession against ²Paul, that he might ³have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, ^asetting an ambush to kill him on the way).

⁴Festus then ^aanswered that Paul ^bwas being kept in custody at ^cCaesarea and that he himself was about to leave shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he said, “let the influential men among you ¹go there with me, and if there is anything wrong ²about the man, let them ³prosecute him.”

⁶After he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to ^aCaesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on ^bthe tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.

⁷After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing ^amany and serious charges against him ^bwhich they could not prove,

⁸while Paul said in his own defense, “^aI have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

⁹But Festus, ^awishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “^bAre you willing to go up to Jerusalem and ¹stand trial before me on these charges?”

¹⁰But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s ^atribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know.

¹¹“If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I ^aappeal to Caesar.”

¹²Then when Festus had conferred with ¹his council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.”

¹³Now when several days had elapsed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at ^aCaesarea ¹and paid their respects to Festus.

¹⁴While they were spending many days there, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man who was ^aleft as a prisoner by Felix;

¹⁵and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews ^abrought charges against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him.

¹⁶“I ^aanswered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man before ^bthe accused meets his accusers face to face and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges.

¹⁷“So after they had assembled here, I did not delay, but on the next day took my seat on ^athe tribunal and ordered the man to be brought before me.

¹⁸“When the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as I was expecting,

¹⁹but they simply had some ^apoints of disagreement with him about their own ^1breligion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive.

²⁰“^aBeing at a loss how to investigate ¹such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these matters.

²¹“But when Paul ^aappealed to be held in custody for ¹the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.”

²²Then ^aAgrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”

Paul before Agrippa

²³So, on the next day when ^aAgrippa came ¹together with Bernice amid great pomp, and entered the auditorium ²accompanied by the ³commanders and the prominent men of the city, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

²⁴Festus said, “King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen here present with us, you see this man about whom ^aall the people of the Jews appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring that ^bhe ought not to live any longer.

²⁵“But I found that he had committed ^anothing worthy of death; and since he himself ^bappealed to ¹the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶“¹Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write.

²⁷“For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to indicate also the charges against him.”

Chapter 26

Paul’s Defense before Agrippa

^1aAgrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

²“In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today;

³¹especially because you are an expert in all ^acustoms and ²questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know ^amy manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

⁵since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a ^aPharisee ^baccording to the strictest ^csect of our religion.

⁶“And now I am ¹standing trial ^afor the hope of ^bthe promise made by God to our fathers;

⁷the promise ^ato which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this ^bhope, O King, I am being ^caccused by Jews.

⁸“Why is it considered incredible among you people ^aif God does raise the dead?

⁹“So then, ^aI thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to ^bthe name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰“And this is ¹just what I ^adid in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ²saints in prisons, having ^breceived authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ^ccast my vote against them.

¹¹“And ^aas I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being ^bfuriously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^ceven to ¹foreign cities.

¹²“¹While so engaged ^aas I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, ¹brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴“And when we had ^aall fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the ^1bHebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? ²It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶‘But get up and ^astand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to ^bappoint you a ^cminister and ^da witness not only to the things which you have ¹seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;

^17arescuing you ^bfrom the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to ^aopen their eyes so that they may turn from ^bdarkness to light and from the dominion of ^cSatan to God, that they may receive ^dforgiveness of sins and an ^einheritance among those who have been sanctified by ^ffaith in Me.’

¹⁹“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but kept declaring both ^ato those of Damascus first, and also ^bat Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even ^cto the Gentiles, that they should ^drepent and turn to God, performing deeds ^eappropriate to repentance.

²¹“For this reason some Jews ^aseized me in the temple and tried ^bto put me to death.

²²“So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day ^atestifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what ^bthe Prophets and Moses said was going to take place;

^231athat ²the Christ was ³to suffer, and that ^bby reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim ^clight both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! ¹Your great ^alearning is ²driving you mad.”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, ^amost excellent Festus, but I utter words ¹of sober truth.

²⁶“For the king ^1aknows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a ²corner.

²⁷“King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you ¹do.”

²⁸Agrippa replied to Paul, “¹In a short time you ²will persuade me to ³become a ^aChristian.”

²⁹And Paul said, “¹I would wish to God, that whether ²in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these ^achains.”

^30aThe king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them,

³¹and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, “^aThis man is not doing anything worthy of death or ¹imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been ^aset free if he had not ^bappealed to Caesar.”