Acts 25:1-12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Paul Appeals to the Emperor

25 Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, ² where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him^{(A) 3} and requested, as a favor to them against Paul,^[a] to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.^{(B) 4} Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly.^{(C) 5} “So,” he said, “let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶ After he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. ⁷ When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.^{(D) 8} Paul said in his defense, “I have in no way committed an offense against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against the emperor.”^{(E) 9} But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”^{(F) 10} Paul said, “I am standing before the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know. ¹¹ Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death, but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”^{(G) 12} Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, “You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.”