25 After Festos had been in the area for three days, he made the uphill trip from Kaisareia to Yerushalem (Jerusalem). 2 There the chief priests and the Jewish leaders repeated their case against Paulos, and they implored Festos, 3 asking as a special favour, that he would order Paulos to be sent to Yerushalem (because they wanted to ambush and kill him on the way). 4 But Festos replied that he’d keep Paulos in Kaisareia 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 Yerushalem, Festos and company travelled back to Kaisareia, and the next day he sat at the judge’s bench and ordered that Paulos be brought in. 7 When he arrived, the Yehudim (Jews) who’d come from Yerushalem stood facing Paulos and presented many heavy charges which they weren’t able to prove. 8 Paulos defended himself, stating that he hadn’t sinned against any Jewish law or against the temple, nor against any Romaios law.
9 However, Festos wanted to be able to grant a favour to the Yehudim, so in response to Paulos he asked, “Are you willing to be returned to Yerushalem so that I can judge you about these there?”
10 “I’m here facing Kaisar’s representative,” Paulos replied. “and it’s quite appropriate for me to be judged here. I’ve done nothing wrong to these Yehudim 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 Kaisar.”
12 So Festos conferred with his legal counsel and answered, “Well, you’ve appealed to Kaisar so you’ll go to Kaisar!”
