1. Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem,
2. where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought their charges against Paul. They begged Festus
3. to do them the favour of bringing Paul to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way.
4. Festus answered, “Paul is being kept a prisoner in Caesarea, and I myself will be going back there soon.
5. Let your leaders go to Caesarea with me and accuse the man if he has done anything wrong.”
6. Festus spent another eight or ten days with them and then went to Caesarea. On the next day he sat down in the court of judgement and ordered Paul to be brought in.
7. When Paul arrived, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood round him and started making many serious charges against him, which they were not able to prove.
8. But Paul defended himself: “I have done nothing wrong against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple or against the Roman Emperor.”