Acts
Three days after Festus had come to the province he left Caesarea for
Jerusalem.
So the chief priests and Jewish leaders brought formal charges
against Paul to him there.
They begged Festus as a favor to have Paul brought to Jerusalem, because they were plotting to ambush and kill him on the way.
Festus replied that Paul was being kept in custody in Caesarea and that he
himself would be going there soon.
He said to them, “Let your leaders go
with me, and if this man has committed any crime, they may bring their accusations against him.”
When he had stayed there among them for eight or ten days, Festus went to Caesarea. The next day he sat on the judgment seat and commanded Paul to be brought in.
When Paul came in, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem
stood around him, bringing many serious accusations against him which they
could not prove.
Paul said in his defense, “I have done nothing against the
Law of the Jews, against the Temple, or against Caesar.”
But Festus,
wanting to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Are you willing to go to
Jerusalem and be put on trial before me there on these charges?”
Paul responded, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have
done no wrong to the Jews, as you know very well.
If I have done wrong
and committed a crime worthy of death, I am not trying to escape the death penalty. But if none of
their charges against me is true, then no one can give me over to them. I
appeal to Caesar!”
Festus, after conferring with his council of advisors, responded, “You
have appealed to Caesar, so to Caesar you will go!”
After several days, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived in
Caesarea on an official visit to Festus.
They stayed there several days, and Festus presented Paul’s case to the king for consideration. “There is a man left here as a prisoner by Felix,” he began.
“When I was in Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests
and elders made accusations against him, asking for a guilty verdict.
I replied to them that it is not the custom of the
Romans to hand anyone over before he has met his accusers face to face and
has had an opportunity to make his defense against the charges.
So when his
accusers came here with me, I did not delay, but the next day I sat on the judgment
seat and commanded the man to be brought before me.
When his accusers
stood up they did not charge him with the wrongdoing that I expected.
Instead
they had several points of disagreement with him about their own religion,
and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul said was alive.
I was at a loss
to know how to investigate these matters, and so I asked him if he was
willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial there.
But Paul appealed that his
case be tried before His Majesty the Emperor, so I commanded him to be kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar.”
Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to
hear this man myself.” Felix replied, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”
So the next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived with great pageantry at the auditorium, along with the military commanders and leading men of the
city. Then Festus ordered Paul to be brought in.
Festus said, “King Agrippa,
and all of you who are present with us, you see this man about whom all the
Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea. They shouted that he
should not be allowed to live any longer.
But I found that he had done
nothing that deserved death, and since he appealed to His Majesty the
Emperor, I determined to send him there.
But I have nothing certain to write
about him to my lord the emperor. Therefore I have brought him before you all, and
especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this hearing I may have
something definite to write.
For it seems to me unreasonable to send a
prisoner without specifying the charges against him.”
Acts