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25:1  Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
25:2  So the chief priests and the Jewish leaders · brought formal charges against · Paul, · begging him
25:3  and asking him to do them a favor against Paul; they urged Festus to transfer him to Jerusalem, for they were forming a plot to kill him along the way.
25:4  · So then Festus replied that Paul was being kept · at Caesarea but that he himself intended to go there shortly.
25:5  · “So,” he said, “let your leaders go down there with me, and if there is in this man anything improper, let them bring charges against him.”
25:6  After he stayed · among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he took his seat on the judge’s bench and ordered · Paul to be brought.
25:7  When he arrived, · the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove.
25:8  · Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”
25:9  But · Festus, wanting to curry favor with the Jews, responded to Paul, saying, “Do you want to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?”
25:10  Paul answered, · · “I am now standing before · Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. Against the Jews I have done nothing wrong, as · you yourself know very well.
25:11  If then I am a wrongdoer and have done anything worthy of death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one has a right to turn me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
25:12  Then · Festus, after conferring with the council, replied, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you will go.”
25:13  Now after some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice came down to Caesarea and paid their respects to · Festus.
25:14  Since · they were staying there several days, · Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, · · saying, “There is a man left by Felix, a prisoner.
25:15  When I came to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him, asking for a guilty verdict against him.
25:16  I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to turn anyone over before the accused has met the accusers face to face and had an opportunity to make his defense against the charge.
25:17  So when they met here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the judge’s bench and ordered the man to be brought.
25:18  When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge against him of such evils as I was expecting,
25:19  but had certain questions about · their own religion to put to him and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul claimed · to be alive.
25:20  Since I was uncertain · · about how to investigate such questions, I asked if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on these charges.
25:21  · But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.”
25:22  Then Agrippa said to · Festus, “I too would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” said he, “you will hear him.”
25:23  So on the next day when Agrippa and Bernice came · · with great pomp and entered the audience hall along with the commanding officers and the prominent men of the city, and when Festus had given the order, · Paul was brought in. ·
25:24  And Festus said, · “King Agrippa, and all · men present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people · petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.
25:25  But I found that he had done nothing worthy of death; and since he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to send him.
25:26  But I do not have anything definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, when the examination has been conducted, I may have something to write.
25:27  For it seems unreasonable to me, in sending a prisoner, not to also report the charges against him.”