¹⁶ I answered them, “You are saying that this man has done wrong things. He must first stand in front of you who are speaking against him. Then he can answer you, and I can judge who is right. That is what our Roman law says must happen.”

¹⁷ So when I came back here, the Jewish leaders and the leaders of their priests came with me. I did not wait for long. On the next day I sat down on my special seat as judge. I told my soldiers to bring this man to me. ¹⁸ The men who had spoken against him stood up. I thought they would say that Paul had done some very bad thing. But they did not say that.