Acts 25:1-26:27

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 25

Paul’s Third Trial—before Festus.^{[a] 1} Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, ² where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews informed him about Paul. They urged him ³ as a favor to send for Paul to bring him to Jerusalem. They were going to kill him in an ambush along the way.

⁴ Festus replied that Paul was in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself would be returning there shortly. ⁵ He said, “Let your authorities come down with me, and if this man has done something improper, they can bring a charge against him.”

⁶ After staying with them for eight to ten days, Festus went down to Caesarea. On the next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be summoned. ⁷ When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and they leveled many serious charges against him that they were unable to prove.

⁸ Paul said in his defense, “I have committed no offense against the Jewish Law, or against the temple, or against the Emperor.” ⁹ Festus, anxious to ingratiate himself with the Jews, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial there before me on these charges?”

¹⁰ Paul replied, “I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar, and this is where I should be tried. I have committed no crime against the Jews, as you yourself well know. ¹¹ If I am guilty of any capital crime, I do not ask to be spared death. However, if there is no substance to the charges they are bringing against me, then no one has the right to turn me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”^{[b] 12} Then, after Festus had conferred with his advisors, he said, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”

¹³ Paul’s Fourth Trial—before Agrippa.^[c] Some days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. ¹⁴ Since they spent several days there, Festus raised the subject of Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man here who was left in custody by Felix. ¹⁵ When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and requested his condemnation. ¹⁶ I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before he had met his accusers face to face and had had an opportunity to defend himself against their charges.

¹⁷ “Therefore, when they had come here, I wasted no time; the very next day, I took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be summoned. ¹⁸ When the accusers rose, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting. ¹⁹ Instead, they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about someone named Jesus, a dead man who Paul asserted was alive.

²⁰ “Since I did not feel qualified to deal with such questions, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial on these charges. ²¹ But Paul appealed to be held in custody for the Emperor’s decision, and I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.” ²² Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man for myself.” He replied, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”

²³ On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice arrived with great pomp and entered the audience hall, accompanied by officers of high rank and prominent men of the city. Festus ordered Paul to be brought in. ²⁴ Then he said, “King Agrippa and all of you here present with us, you see this man about whom the entire Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting loudly that he should not be allowed to live any longer.

²⁵ “I have found nothing deserving of death, but when he made his appeal to the Emperor, I decided to send him. ²⁶ However, I have nothing definite about him to put in writing for our sovereign. Therefore, 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. ²⁷ For it seems senseless to me to send on a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”

Chapter 26

Paul’s Defense before Agrippa. ¹ Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself: ² “I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that it is before you today that I am to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews, ³ particularly since you are well acquainted with all our Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I implore you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ “The Jews all know my way of life from my youth, which I first lived among my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵ They have known about me from my youth, and they could testify, if they were willing, that I belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. ⁶ But now I am on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.

⁷ “Our twelve tribes worship night and day with intense devotion in the hope of seeing its fulfillment. It is because of this hope that I am accused by the Jews, O king. ⁸ Why should it seem incredible to any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹ “I myself once thought that I had to do everything possible against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With the authorization of the chief priests, I not only sent many of the saints^[d] to prison, but when they were being condemned to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹ In all the synagogues, I tried by inflicting repeated punishments to force them to blaspheme, and I was so enraged with fury against them that I even pursued them to foreign cities.

¹² “On one such occasion, I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ At midday, as I was on my way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’^[e]

¹⁵ “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ Get up now and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as my servant and as a witness to what you have seen of me and what you will yet see. ¹⁷ I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. ¹⁸ You are to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light^[f] and from the power of Satan to God. Thus, they may obtain forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated through faith in me.’

¹⁹ “And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision from heaven. ²⁰ Rather, I started to preach, first to the people in Damascus, and then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, calling on them to repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. ²¹ That is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²² “But I have had help from God to this very day, and I stand here and testify to both the lowly and the great. I assert nothing more than what the Prophets and Moses said would occur: ²³ that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴ Reactions to Paul’s Speech. While Paul was still speaking in his own defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane.” ²⁵ But he replied, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. What I am asserting is true and reasonable. ²⁶ The king understands these matters, and to him I now speak freely. I am confident that none of this has escaped his notice, for all this was not done in a corner.^{[g] 27} King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets?^[h] I know that you do.”