Acts 25:13–27

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.”