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.^{(A) 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.”^{(B) 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?”^{(C) 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.”^{(D) 12} Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, “You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.”