Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Felix’s successor begins his duties with vigour—

25 ^1-4 Three days after Festus had taken over his province he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. The chief priests and elders of the Jews informed him of the case against Paul and begged him as a special favour to have Paul sent to Jerusalem. They themselves had already made a plot to kill him on the way. But Festus replied that Paul was in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself was going there shortly.

⁵ “What you must do,” he told them, “is to provide some competent men of your own to go down with me and if there is anything wrong with the man they can present their charges against him.”

^6-8 Festus spent not more than eight or ten days among them at Jerusalem and then went down to Caesarea. On the day after his arrival he took his seat on the bench and ordered Paul to be brought in. As soon as he arrived the Jews from Jerusalem stood up on all sides of him, bringing forward many serious accusations which they were quite unable to substantiate. Paul, in his defence, maintained, “I have committed no offence in any way against the Jewish Law, or against the Temple or against Caesar.”

—but is afraid of antagonising the Jews

⁹ But Festus, wishing to gain the goodwill of the Jews, spoke direct to Paul, “Are you prepared to go up to Jerusalem and stand your trial over these matters in my presence there?”

^10-11 But Paul replied, “I am standing in Caesar’s court and that is where I should be judged. I have done the Jews no harm, as you very well know. It comes to this: if I were a criminal and had committed some crime which deserved the death penalty, I should not try to evade sentence of death. But as in fact there is no truth in the accusations these men have made, I am not prepared to be used as a means of gaining their favour—I appeal to Caesar!”.

¹² Then Festus, after a conference with his advisers, replied to Paul, “You have appealed to Caesar—then to Caesar you shall go!”