¹So Festus took up office as governor, and three days later he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. ²And the high priest and the highest-ranking Jews made their position against Paul clear to him, and they appealed to him, ³asking for a favour against the man, that he would send for him to come to Jerusalem, while they laid an ambush so as to eliminate him on the way. ⁴However, Festus answered that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and he himself was going to depart shortly. ⁵He said, “Well then, let the men of senior rank among you come down together and accuse him, if there is anything against this man.” ⁶Then he spent more than ten days among them, and when he had come back down to Caesarea, on the following day he took his seat in the court and ordered Paul to be brought. ⁷And when he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood round about, bringing many serious charges against Paul, which they could not substantiate, ⁸whereas he stated in his defence, “I have neither offended against the law of the Jews nor against the temple nor against Caesar in any respect.” ⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favour, answered and said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and to be judged on these matters by me there?” ¹⁰Then Paul said, “I stand in Caesar's court where I should be judged. I have not wronged the Jews, as you for your part know very well. ¹¹So if I am in the wrong, and I have done anything deserving death, I do not ask for the death penalty to be lifted, but if the things which these people accuse me of are nothing, no-one can hand me over to them as a favour. I appeal to Caesar.” ¹²Then Festus conferred with the council and replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.” ¹³Now when a number of days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and greeted Festus. ¹⁴And when he had spent several days there, Festus set Paul's case out to the king, and he said, “There is a certain man who has been left by Felix, a prisoner, ¹⁵concerning whom when I was in Jerusalem the senior priests and elders of the Jews explained a case, asking for a penalty against him. ¹⁶And I replied to them that it is not the custom for Romans to hand over any man to the death penalty before the accused has the accusers face to face, and he receives an opportunity for defence concerning the accusation. ¹⁷So they gathered here, and I made no delay and held a sitting in the court the next day, and I ordered the man to be brought in. ¹⁸But the accusers stood there and did not make any accusation concerning him of the kind which I suspected, ¹⁹but they had some dispute about their own religion against him, and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul was asserting to be alive. ²⁰And as I was at a loss in the dispute concerning this man, I asked if he wished to go to Jerusalem and be judged there concerning these things. ²¹But when Paul appealed that he should be guarded awaiting Augustus's decision, I ordered him to be guarded until I send him to Caesar.” ²²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I myself would also like to hear the man.” “Tomorrow”, he then said, “you will hear him.” ²³So the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with much pomp, and they went to the audience hall with the cohort commanders and the prominent men of the city, and at Festus's command Paul was brought in. ²⁴And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all you gentlemen who are present with us, you see this man concerning whom the whole multitude of Jews prevailed on me in Jerusalem and here, shouting out that he should no longer live. ²⁵But I do not detect that he has done anything worthy of death, and as he himself has appealed to Augustus, I have decided to send him. ²⁶But I have nothing specific about him to write to the sovereign, which is why I have produced him before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that when an interrogation has taken place, I might have something to write. ²⁷For it seems to me to be unreasonable when sending a prisoner not also to indicate the charges against him.”