Open English Translation ACTs Chapter 25

25 After Festus had been in the area for three days, he made the uphill trip from Caesarea to Yerusalem. 2 There the chief priests and the Jewish leaders repeated their case against Paul, and they implored Festus, 3 asking as a special favour, that he would order Paul to be sent to Yerusalem (because they wanted to ambush and kill him on the way). 4 But Festus replied that he’d keep Paul in Caesarea and he was heading back there soon, 5 so he told them, “Some of your leaders can go there with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can explain their accusations there.”

6 After staying seven or eight days in Yerusalem, Festus and company travelled back to Caesarea, and the next day he sat at the judge’s bench and ordered that Paul be brought in. 7 When he arrived, the Jews who had come from Yerusalem stood facing Paul and presented many heavy charges which they weren’t able to prove. 8 Paul defended himself, stating that he had not sinned against any Jewish law or against the temple, nor against any Roman law.

9 However, Festus wanted to be able to grant a favour to the Jews, so in response to Paul he asked, “Are you willing to be returned to Yerusalem so that I can judge you about these things there?”

10 “I’m here facing Caesar’s representative,” Paul replied. “and it’s quite appropriate for me to be judged here. I’ve done nothing wrong to these Jews as you can no doubt see for yourself. 11 If I had done anything wrong, anything worthy of the death sentence, then I’m ready to accept death. On the other hand, if none of their accusations are true, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

12 So the Festus conferred with his legal counsel and answered, “Well, you’ve appealed to Caesar so you’ll go to Caesar!”

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.