Acts 25

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Paul appeals to Caesar

¹ Now when Festus had come to the province, after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. ² Then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul; and they petitioned him, ³ asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem, while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him. ⁴ But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there shortly. ⁵ "Therefore," he said, "let those among you who have authority go down with me and accuse him, if there is anything in this man."

⁶ And when he had remained among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought. ⁷ When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove, ⁸ while he answered for himself, "Neither against the Torah of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in anything." ⁹ But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be judged before me concerning these things?" ¹⁰ So Paul said, "I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know. ¹¹ For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar." ¹² Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, "You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!"

Festus consults King Agrippa

¹³ And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus. ¹⁴ When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying: "There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, ¹⁵ about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him. ¹⁶ To them I answered that it is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him. ¹⁷ Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed, ¹⁹ but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Yeshua, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. ²⁰ And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters. ²¹ But when Paul appealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar." ²² Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you shall hear him."

Paul brought before Agrippa

²³ So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus' command Paul was brought in. ²⁴ And Festus said: "King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole multitude of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer. ²⁵ But when I found that he had committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. ²⁶ I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write. ²⁷ For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him."

Notes

• 25:8 Paul answers the three kinds of charge brought against him: against the Torah, against the temple (21:28) and against Caesar (24:5, "dissension"). With 24:14 and 28:17, this has long been read as Paul's own witness that he kept the Torah and did not teach his people to forsake it, as James and the elders also had said of him in 21:24.
• 25:11 A Roman citizen could appeal to the emperor's own court, and Paul did so rather than be handed over to a trial in Jerusalem, where an ambush had already been planned (verse 3). The emperor at this time, about AD 59-60, was Nero. The appeal also carried Paul toward Rome, where the Lord had said he must bear witness (23:11).
• 25:13 This is Herod Agrippa II, son of the Agrippa of 12:1 and great-grandson of Herod the Great; Rome had given him territories in the north and charge over the temple and the appointment of high priests. Bernice was his sister, and Drusilla (24:24) was their younger sister. Agrippa was raised a Jew and knew "all the customs and questions which have to do with the Jews" (26:3).
• 25:19 "Religion" (deisidaimonia) can mean reverence for the divine or, less kindly, superstition; on the lips of a Roman governor speaking to a Jewish king it was probably meant politely. To Festus the heart of the matter was "a certain Yeshua, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive": the resurrection, as Paul had said before the Sanhedrin (23:6; 24:21).
• 25:26 "Augustus" (Sebastos, "the revered one") was a title of the reigning emperor, not only the name of the first emperor; and "my lord" (kyrios) is how Festus speaks of him. The same Greek word kyrios is the one the believers used of Yeshua, "the Lord."

Acts 24 · Acts 26

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