Then Paul answered, when the governor nodded his permission to speak: Knowing that for many years you have been judge over this nation, I will speak in my own defense with a good will; since you can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship, and they have not found me talking to anyone or attracting a mob either in the temple or the synagogues or about the city; nor are they able to prove any of the things of which they now accuse me. But I do admit this to you, that the Way which they call heresy is the Way in which I serve the God of our fathers (for I believe all that is written in the law and the prophets) with hope in God, a hope these men also share, that there will soon be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. In this matter I myself make it my study to have a clear conscience before God and man throughout.
Now, after a number of years, I went to Jerusalem to effect some charities for my people and to bring offerings; during which they found me in the temple after my purification, but not with any crowd or causing disturbance. But there are some Jews from Asia, who ought to be here before you and accusing me, if they have anything against me; or else let these men say what wrongdoing they found in me when I stood before the council other than that one cry that I uttered when I stood among them: I am being judged by you today over the resurrection of the dead.
Then Felix, who knew a great deal about the Way, put them off, saying: When the tribune Lysias comes here I will decide your case. And he ordered the centurion to have him kept under guard, but to give him some freedom, and not to prevent any of his own people from ministering to him.
And after a few days, Felix came with Drusilla, his ownwn wife, who was Jewish, and sent for Paul, and heard him tell about belief in Christ Jesus. But when Paul discoursed about righteousness and continence and the judgment to come, Felix was frightened and said: For the present, go, but I will send for you again when I find another occasion. Also, he was hoping to be given money by Paul, for which reason he sent for him and talked with him the more frequently.
After a full two years, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and wishing to store up some favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul still a prisoner.
1 Three days after setting foot in his province Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem; and the high priests and the foremost men of the Jews brought charges against Paul; and they urged Festus, asking to be favored against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were planning to lie in wait for him and kill him on the way. But Festus answered that Paul was being held in Caesa- rea, and that he himself was about to leave for there very soon. So, he said, let your chief men come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, charge him with it.
Then, after spending no more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea; and the next day he sat in the tribunal and ordered Paul brought in. When he arrived the Jews who had come do^ from Jerusalem surrounded him and brought many serious charges against him, which they could not prove; since Paul said in his defense: I have not sinned in any way against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar.
But Festus, wishing to store up some favor with the Jews, answered and said to Pauclass="underline" Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges, before me? But Paul said: I have taken my stand at the tribunal of Caesar, and there I must be tried. I have done the Jews no wrong, as you yourself know quite well. If I am guilty and have done something that deserves death, I do not protest against dying; but if there is nothing in what they charge against me, no one give me to them as a favor. I appeal to Caesar. Then Festus, after talking with the council, answered: You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.
After a few days had gone by, King Agrippa and Ber- nice visited Caesarea to welcome Festus. And as they spent some days there, Festus referred Paul's case to the King, saying: There is a man whom Felix left behind as a prisoner; and concerning him the high priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges when I was in Jerusalem, demanding his condemnation. To these I answered that it is not the Roman way to hand any man over as a favor; not until the accused has his accusers before his face and is given some chance to defend himself against the accusation. So when they assembled here I made no delay but the next day I sat in the tribunal and ordered the man brought in. When his accusers stood up they did not accuse him of any of the evildoings I had expected, but they had against him only some questions concerning their own religiosity, and concerning one Jesus; who is dead but who, as Paul says, is alive. Not knowing what to do about investigating these matters, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges. But Paul appealed to be held for the attention of Augustus; so I ordered him held until I can send him to Caesar. Agrippa said to Festus: I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said Festus, you shall hear him.
So on the next day Agrippa arrived, and Bernice, with much circumstance, and they entered the audience room along with the tribunes and the men of prominence in the city; and at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. And Festus said: King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen who are here with us, you are looking at the man for whose sake the whole population of the Jews has been after me, both in Jerusalem and here, crying that he should not go on living. I myself judged that he had done nothing to deserve death; but since he himself appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. But I have nothing definite to write to our master about him; which is why I have brought him before all of you, and above all before you, King Agrippa, so that when he has been questioned I can have something to write; for it seems absurd to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.
IThen Agrippa said to Pauclass="underline" You have leave to speak for yourself. Then Paul extended his hand and began his defense, saying: I count myself most fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am to defend myself against the charges of the Jews in your presence today; for I know that you are supremely well informed in all the customs and questions which are the concern of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me with patience.
All Jews know about my life, from youth onward, both in my own country and in Jerusalem, and they know from the past, if they will admit it, that I lived according to the strictest sect in our religion, as a Pharisee. And now I stand on trial for hope in that promise which was given by God to our fathers, that expectation which our twelve tribes hope to realize by serving strenuously night and day. It is for this hope, О King, that I am being accused by the Jews. If God wakens the dead, why is that accounted incredible by you Jews?
Now, I thought to myself that I had to do much to oppose the n^e of Jesus of Nazareth. And this I did in Jerusalem, and with authority granted me by the high priests I confined many of the saints in prison, and when they were killed I cast my vote for it, and in all the synagogues by frequent punishment I tried to force them to blaspheme; and in my immoderate rage against them I even pursued them into cities abroad.