25 After Festus had been in the area for three days, he made the uphill trip from Caesarea to Yerushalem. 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 Yerushalem (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 Yerushalem, 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’d come from Yerushalem stood facing Paul and presented many heavy charges which they weren’t able to prove. 8 Paul defended himself, stating that he hadn’t 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 Yerushalem 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 Festus conferred with his legal counsel and answered, “Well, you’ve appealed to Caesar so you’ll go to Caesar!”