Acts 25:4-12

⁴Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself was about to leave shortly. ⁵“Therefore,” he *said, “have the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, have them bring charges against him.”

⁶After Festus had spent no more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered that Paul be brought. ⁷After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many, and serious, charges against him which they could not prove, ⁸while Paul said in his own defense, “I have not done anything wrong either against the Law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against Caesar.” ⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?” ¹⁰But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know. ¹¹If, therefore, I am in the wrong and have committed something deserving death, I am not trying to avoid execution; but if there is nothing to the accusations which these men are bringing against me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.” ¹²Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.”