Acts 25:1–12

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.”