15. When I was in Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests and elders brought charges against him and requested a guilty verdict in his case.
16. I told them it is contrary to Roman practice to hand someone over before they have faced their accusers and had opportunity to offer a defense against the charges.
17. When they came here, I didn’t put them off. The very next day I took my seat in the court and ordered that the man be brought before me.
18. When the accusers took the floor, they didn’t charge him with any of the crimes I had expected.
19. Instead, they quibbled with him about their own religion and about some dead man named Jesus, who Paul claimed was alive.
20. Since I had no idea how to investigate these matters, I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial there on these issues.
21. However, Paul appealed that he be held in custody pending a decision from His Majesty the emperor, so I ordered that he be held until I could send him to Caesar."
22. Agrippa said to Festus, "I want to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," Festus replied, "you will hear him."
23. The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great fanfare. They entered the auditorium with the military commanders and the city’s most prominent men. Festus then ordered that Paul be brought in.
24. Festus said, "King Agrippa and everyone present with us: You see this man! The entire Jewish community, both here and in Jerusalem, has appealed to me concerning him. They’ve been calling for his immediate death.