Festus and Agrippa Discuss Paul’s Trial

¹³ Now when several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at ^(A)Caesarea ^[a]and greeted Festus. ¹⁴ And while they were spending many days there, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man who was ^(B)left as a prisoner by Felix; ¹⁵ and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews ^(C)brought charges against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. ¹⁶ I ^(D)answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man before ^(E)the accused meets his accusers face to face and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges. ¹⁷ So after they had assembled here, I did not delay, but on the next day took my seat on ^(F)the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought before me. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they were not bringing any charges against him for the evil deeds I was expecting, ¹⁹ but they had some ^(G)points of disagreement with him about their own ^[b](H)religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man whom Paul asserted to be alive. ^20 (I)And being perplexed about how to investigate ^[c]such matters, I was asking whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there to be tried on these matters. ²¹ But when Paul ^(J)appealed to be held in custody for ^[d]the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I send him to Caesar.” ²² Then ^(K)Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he *said, “you shall hear him.”