Beginning
Bring on the barristers
24 After five days, Ananias the high priest came down to Caesarea with some of the elders, and with a barrister named Tertullus. They told the governor what they had against Paul. 2 Paul was summoned, and Tertullus began his speech of accusation.
“Most excellent Felix! We are enjoying great peace because of you! Through your wise foresight and planning things have greatly improved for this people. 3 We welcome it in every way, in every place, and with every feeling of gratitude. 4 But, so as not to keep you waiting any longer, I beg you, of your forbearance, to listen to us briefly.
5 “We find this fellow to be a public nuisance. He stirs up civil strife among all the Jews, all over the world. He is a ringleader in the sect of the Nazoreans. 6 He even tried to defile the Temple! But we caught him. 8 If you examine him yourself you will be able to find out about all these things of which we’re accusing him.”
9 The Jews added their voices to this speech, agreeing that it was just as it had been said.
A defense of the Hope
10 The governor motioned to Paul to speak.
“I understand that you have been governor of this nation for several years,” he began, “and therefore I am all the more pleased to make my defense before you. 11 You will be able to discover that it is not more than twelve days since I came up to worship at Jerusalem. 12 They didn’t find me disputing with anybody in the Temple; nor was I stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues or elsewhere in the city. 13 They can provide no proof of any of the charges they are now bringing against me.
14 “But this much I will confess to you: it is true that I do worship the God of my ancestors according to the Way which they call a ‘sect.’ I believe everything which is written in the law and the prophets, 15 and I hold to the hope in God, for which they also long, that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. 16 For that reason I make it my settled aim always to have a clear conscience before God and all people.
17 “For several years I have been collecting alms and offerings to bring to my nation. 18 That was the business I was engaged in when they found me purified in the Temple, without any crowds and without any riot. 19 There were some Jews from Asia there; they are the ones who should appear before you and bring any accusations against me that they may have. 20 Or let these people themselves say what wrong they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— 21 unless it is about this one thing, which I shouted out as I was standing among them: ‘It’s because of the resurrection of the dead that I am being judged before you today.’ ”
Felix calms (and slows) things down
22 Felix was quite well informed about the Way. He adjourned the hearing.
“When Lysias the tribune comes down,” he said, “then I will make my decision about your business.”
23 He told the centurion to keep Paul under guard, to allow him some freedom, and not to stop any of his companions from looking after him.
24 After some days, Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was Jewish. They sent for Paul and listened to him speaking about faith in the Messiah Jesus. 25 As he talked about justice, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became afraid.
“That’s quite enough for now,” he said. “You can go. When I get a good opportunity I’ll call for you again another time.”
26 At the same time he was hoping that Paul would give him money, and so he sent for him frequently and talked with him. 27 After two years Felix handed over the reins of office to Porcius Festus. He wanted to do the Jews a favor, and so he left Paul in prison.
To Caesar you shall go
25 So Festus arrived in the province, and after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 2 The high priests and the leading men of the Jews appeared before him, laying charges against Paul, and putting a request to him. 3 They wanted him to do a special favor for them and against Paul, by sending for him to be brought up to Jerusalem. They were making a plan to kill him on the way. 4 But Festus answered that he was keeping Paul at Caesarea, and that he himself would shortly be going back there.
5 “So,” he said, “your officials should come down with me. They can put any accusations of wrongdoing they may have against the man.”
6 He stayed with them for a few days (about eight or ten) and then went down to Caesarea. On the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought to him. 7 When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and hurled many serious accusations at him, which they were not able to substantiate. 8 Paul made his response: “I have offended neither against the Jews’ law, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar.”
9 Festus, however, wanted to do a favor to the Jews. “Tell me,” he said to Paul in reply, “how would you like to go up to Jerusalem and be tried by me there about these things?”
10 “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal,” said Paul, “which is where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you well know. 11 If I have committed any wrong, or if I have done something which means I deserve to die, I’m not trying to escape death. But if I haven’t done any of the things they are accusing me of, nobody can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
12 Festus consulted with his advisers.
“You have appealed to Caesar,” he said, “and to Caesar you shall go.”
Agrippa and Bernice
13 After some days King Agrippa came to Caesarea, with Bernice, to greet Festus. 14 They spent several days there, and during that time Festus put to the king the whole matter of Paul and the case against him.
“I have a man here,” he said, “who was left by Felix as a prisoner. 15 When I was up in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Jewish elders came before me and asked me to pass sentence on him. 16 My response was that it is not our Roman custom to hand anyone over until the accused has had a chance to look his accusers in the face and make a defense against the charges. 17 So they came down here, and I didn’t postpone the business, but sat in court the next day and commanded the man to be brought. 18 His accusers stood there and brought charges—but not of the sort of wrongdoing I had been expecting. 19 It turned out to have to do with various wranglings concerning their own religion, and about some dead man called Jesus whom Paul asserted was alive. 20 I simply didn’t know what to do about all this dispute, and so I asked him if he would like to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there about these things. 21 But Paul then appealed for his case to be sent up to His Majesty! So I gave the order that he should be kept under guard until I can send him to Caesar.”
22 “I should like to hear this man for myself,” said Agrippa to Festus.
“Very well,” said Festus. “You shall do so tomorrow.”
23 On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great ceremony, and entered the audience chamber. With them came the tribunes and the leading men of the city. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought in.
24 “King Agrippa,” said Festus, “and all of you assembled here, you see this man. The whole multitude of the Jews appealed to me about him, both in Jerusalem and here. They shouted that it wasn’t right to let him live. 25 But I found that he had done nothing to deserve death, and since he then himself appealed to His Majesty I decided to send him. 26 I don’t have anything definite to write to our Lord and Master about him, and so I’ve brought him here to you, and particularly before you, King Agrippa, so that I may know what to write once we have had a judicial hearing. 27 There seems no sense to me in sending a prisoner without giving some indication of the charges against him.”
Paul before Agrippa
26 Agrippa addressed Paul.
“You are permitted,” he said, “to speak for yourself.”
Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.
2 “I consider myself blessed, King Agrippa,” he said, “to have the chance to speak before you today in my defense concerning all the things of which the Jews have charged me, 3 in particular because I know you are an expert on all matters of Jewish customs and disputes. I beg you, therefore, to give me a generous hearing.
4 “All the Jews know my manner of life. I lived from my earliest days among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have known already for a long time (if they are willing to testify!) that I lived as a Pharisee, according to the strictest sect of our religion. 6 And now I stand accused because of the hope of the promise made by God to our ancestors, 7 the hope for which our twelve tribes wait with earnest longing in their worship night and day. And it is this hope, O king, for which I am now accused by the Jews! 8 Why should any of you judge it unbelievable that God would raise the dead?
9 “I thought I was under obligation to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 10 and that is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests to shut up many of God’s people in prison, and when they were condemned to death I cast my vote against them. 11 I punished them many times in all the synagogues, and forced many of them to blaspheme. I became more and more furious against them, and even pursued them to cities in other lands.”
Paul’s conversion (one more time)
12 “While I was busy on this work,” Paul continued, “I was traveling to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests. 13 Around midday, while I was on the road, O king, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the light of the sun, and shining all around me and my companions on the road. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in Aramaic.
“ ‘Saul, Saul,’ he said, ‘why are you persecuting me? It’s hard for you, this kicking against the goads.’
15 “ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I said.
“ ‘I am Jesus,’ said the Lord, ‘and you are persecuting me. 16 But get up and stand on your feet. I’m going to tell you why I have appeared to you. I am going to establish you as a servant, as a witness both of the things you have already seen and of the occasions I will appear to you in the future. 17 I will rescue you from the people, and from the nations to whom I am going to send you 18 so that you can open their eyes to enable them to turn from darkness to light, and from the power of the satan to God—so that they can have forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among those who are made holy, by their faith in me.’
19 “So then, King Agrippa, I didn’t disobey this vision from heaven. 20 I preached that people should repent, and turn to God, and do the works that demonstrate repentance. I preached it first to those in Damascus, then also in Jerusalem, in the whole countryside of Judaea, and among the nations. 21 That is the reason the Jews seized me in the Temple and tried to slaughter me. 22 But I have had help from God, right up to this very day. And so I stand here to bear witness, to small and great alike, of nothing except what the prophets, and Moses too, said would happen: 23 namely, that the Messiah would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and that he would proclaim light to the people and to the nations.”
“Paul, you’re mad!”
24 As Paul was making his defense in this way, Festus roared out at the top of his voice, “Paul, you’re mad! All this learning of yours has driven you crazy!”
25 “I’m not mad, most excellent Festus,” responded Paul. “On the contrary, what I say is full of truth and good sense. 26 The king knows about these things, and it is to him that I am speaking so boldly. I cannot believe that any of this has escaped his notice. After all, these things didn’t happen in a corner. 27 Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know you believe them.”
28 “You reckon you’re going to make me a Christian, then,” said Agrippa to Paul, “and pretty quick, too, by the sound of it!”
29 “Whether quick or slow,” replied Paul, “I pray to God that not only you but also all who hear me today will become just as I am—apart, of course, from these chains.”
30 The king, the governor and Bernice, and those sitting with them, got up. 31 As they were going away, they talked to one another about it.
“This man,” they were saying, “has done nothing to deserve death or chains.”
32 And Agrippa commented to Festus, “This man could have been set free, if only he hadn’t gone and appealed to Caesar.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.