Acts 25

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.”