506-507 : King Agrippa Hears Paul
Soon after Festus had come into the province,
he commanded Paul to be brought to him as he sat on the judgment seat.
And the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem laid many grievous complaints against Paul which they could not prove.
Paul answered for himself, "Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple,
nor yet against Caesar have I offended anything at all."
But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, asked Paul, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be judged of these things before me?"
Then 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.
If I am an offender and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die.
But if none of these things are so, of which these men accuse me, no man may deliver me to them.
I appeal to Caesar."
Then Festus, after he had conferred with the council,
answered, "Have you appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go."
KING AGRIPPA HEARS PAUL
Some days after, King Agrippa and his sister Bernioe came to Caesarea to greet Festus.
And when they had been there many days, Festus told the king about Paul's case.
Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I would like to hear the man myself."
"Tomorrow" said Festus, "you shall hear him.
Perhaps from your examination of him I may have something to write about him,
for it seems unreasonable to send a prisoner to Rome without signifying the crimes laid against him."
The next day, in the place of hearings, Paul spoke before Agrippa and Bernice and many others, explaining how he was converted and preached repentance and the way of God.
Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to be a Christian."
And Paul said, "I wish to God that not only you, but also all that hear me this day,
were both 'almost' and altogether like I am, except for these chains."
And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor,
and Bernice, and they that sat with them, and when they had gone aside,
they talked among themselves saying, "This man has done nothing worthy of death or of chains."
Then Agrippa said to Festus,
"This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar."
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