13 Several days later, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in Caesarea to meet Festus. 14 As they had planned to stay on for a few days, Festus mentioned about Paul to the king, telling him, “There’s a prisoner here that Felix left behind. 15 When I was in Yerusalem, the chief priests and Jewish elders reported to me, wanting a conviction of this man. 16 I told them that it’s not the Roman way to convict someone until they’ve been able to face their accusers and make their defence against the accusations. 17 So as soon as they arrived here, on the very next day I sat on the judge’s bench and ordered the man to be brought in 18 that they were accusing, but they didn’t raise even one of the charges that I expected. 19 Instead they raised some issues about their own beliefs and about some dead person called Yeshua that Paul reckoned was still living. 20 I was puzzled about this debate and asked him if he wanted to be judged about these things in Yerusalem. 21 But Paul appealed to be kept safe from them until he could face the emperor, so I ordered him to be kept in prison until I can send him to Rome.

22 “I’d quite like to hear him myself,” Agrippa said.

“Well, tomorrow,” replied Festus, “you’ll be able to hear from him.”

23 So the next day, King Agrippa and Bernice formally arrived with all their attendants and entered the auditorium to greet the commanders and the prominent men of the city, and then Festus ordered for Paul to be brought in. 24 Festus started, “King Agrippa and everyone present, observe the prisoner who a multitude of Jews pleaded with me about both in Yerusalem and here, that he doesn’t deserve to still be alive. 25 But I haven’t discovered anything that he’s done that’s worthy of a death sentence, and since he himself appealed to the emperor, I judged that that’s where he should be sent. 26 The problem is that I don’t have any charge to write to my master and so I’ve brought the prisoner out in front of you so that after you examine him, I might have something I can write, 27 because it doesn’t seem logical to me to transport a prisoner to Rome if there’s no charges specified against him.