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ActesChapitre 25

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Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
There the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul. They kept urging him,
asking as a favor that he have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.
Festus answered that Paul was being held in Caesarea and that he himself intended to leave for there shortly.
"So let your leading men come down with me," he said, "and if there is anything wrong with the man, let them bring their charges against him."
After staying among them no more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. The next day he took his seat on the judgment bench and ordered Paul to be brought in.
When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him that they could not prove.
Paul made his defense: "I have committed no offense against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against Caesar."
But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?"
Paul replied, "I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done the Jews no wrong, as you yourself know very well.
If then I am guilty of wrongdoing and have done anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is nothing to the charges these men bring against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."
Then Festus, after conferring with his council, answered: "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go."
Some days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus.
Since they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king. "There is a man here," he said, "whom Felix left behind as a prisoner.
When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked for a sentence of condemnation.
I told them it is not the Roman custom to hand a man over before the accused has met his accusers face to face and has had a chance to defend himself against the charge.
So when they had assembled here, I did not delay. The very next day I took my seat on the judgment bench and ordered the man brought in.
When his accusers stood up, they brought no charge of the crimes I had suspected.
Instead, they had certain disputes with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died, who Paul kept insisting was alive.
Being at a loss how to investigate such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.
But when Paul appealed to be held for the decision of His Majesty the Emperor, I ordered him kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar."
Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I would like to hear this man myself." "Tomorrow," he answered, "you will hear him."
So the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience hall along with the commanders and the prominent men of the city. At the order of Festus, Paul was brought in.
Festus said: "King Agrippa, and all of you present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community petitioned me about him, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.
But I found that he had done nothing deserving death, and since he himself has appealed to His Majesty the Emperor, I decided to send him.
But I have nothing definite to write to my sovereign about him. So I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination I may have something to write.
For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him."
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