Acts 25

1 Then entering the province, after three days Festus went from Caesarea to Jerusalem.

2 And the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they begged him

3 asking a favor against him that he would send for him to Jerusalem, making a plot to kill him on way.

4 Then indeed Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea; he himself would depart shortly.

5 Then he said, those having power among you may go down with me. If there is a thing amiss in this man, let them accuse him.

6 And staying among them more than ten days, going down to Caesarea, on the next day sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought.

7 And he having come, the Jews who came down from Jerusalem stood around and brought many charges against Paul, which they could not prove.

8 Defending himself, Paul said, Neither against the Law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything.

9 But Festus, wanting to please the Jews, answered Paul and said, Will you go up to Jerusalem and be judged there before me about these things?

10 But Paul said, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.

11 For if I am an offender or have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is nothing of which these accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.

12 Then conferring with the sanhedrin, Festus answered, You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go.

13 And after some days king Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus.

14 And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause to the king, saying, A certain man has been left in bonds by Felix,

15 about whom, when I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring judgment against him.

16 To them I answered, It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before he being accused may have the accusers face to face, and have had freedom to answer for himself concerning the accusation.

17 Therefore, when they had come here, without any delay I sat on the judgment seat the next day and commanded the man to be brought,

18 about whom, standing up, the accusers brought against him no charge of which I suspected,

19 but they had certain questions about their own demon-worship, and about a certain Jesus dying, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

20 And because I was perplexed about this question, I asked whether he would go to Jerusalem and be judged there about these matters.

21 But Paul having appealed to be reserved to the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be held until I might send him to Caesar.

22 And Agrippa said to Festus, I also would like to hear the man myself. And he said, Tomorrow you shall hear him.

23 And on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp and had entered into the auditorium with both the chiliarchs and principal men of the city, also Festus commanding, Paul was brought out.

24 And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all those men present with us, you see this one about whom all the multitude of the Jews pleaded with me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.

25 But I had perceived nothing he had committed worthy of death, and that he himself has appealed to Augustus, I determined to send him,

26 about whom I have no certain thing to write of him to my lord. Therefore I brought him before you, and especially before you, O king Agrippa, so that, after examination is made, I might have something to write.

27 For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not to signify the charges against him.