¹¹ Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”^(A)

⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to be put to death because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city and all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.”^(A)

⁶⁶ What do you think?” They answered, “He deserves death.”^(A)

²⁰ But any prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’^(A)

¹¹ Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”^{(A) 12} They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. ¹³ They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law,^{(B) 14} for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth^[a] will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.”^(C)

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.”

Festus Consults King Agrippa

¹³ After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.

⁴ But, to detain you no further, I beg you to hear us briefly with your customary graciousness. ⁵ We have, in fact, found this man a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.^{[a](A) 6} He even tried to profane the temple, so we seized him.^{[b](B) 8} By examining him yourself you will be able to learn from him concerning everything of which we accuse him.”

⁹ The Jews also joined in the charge by asserting that all this was true.^(C)

Paul and the Roman Tribune

²² Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”^(A)