Acts 25

Festus arrives in his province and goes up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. The chief priests and principal men of the Jews present their case against Paul and ask Festus to transfer him to Jerusalem, planning an ambush on the way. Festus answers that Paul is being kept at Caesarea and that he himself will go there shortly; they should send their accusers along. After spending not more than eight or ten days in Jerusalem, Festus goes down to Caesarea. The next day he sits on the tribunal and orders Paul to be brought. The Jerusalem accusers surround Paul, bringing many serious charges they cannot prove. Paul offers his defence: I have committed no offence against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against Caesar. Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favour, asks Paul: do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me? Paul answers: I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing in their charges, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.

Festus confers with his council and says: you have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go. When several days have passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrive in Caesarea and pay their respects to Festus. Since they spend many days there, Festus lays Paul's case before Agrippa: there is a man left prisoner by Felix, about whom when I was at Jerusalem the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make a defense. When I held the hearing, the accusers brought no charge in his case that I supposed; they had certain points of dispute about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Agrippa says to Festus: I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, says Festus, you will hear him.