Acts 24:1-21 - Paul Before Felix At Caesarea Maritima

¹ Five days afterwards the High Priest Ananias came down with some of the Councillors and a barrister named Tertullus. They laid an information with the Governor against Paul; ² And, when the hearing came on, Tertullus began his speech for the prosecution. ³ "We owe it to your Excellency," he said, "that we are enjoying profound peace, and we owe it to your foresight that this nation is constantly securing reforms--advantages which we very gratefully accept at all times and places. ⁴ But--not to be tedious--I beg you, with your accustomed fairness, to listen to a brief statement of our case. ⁵ We have found this man a public pest; he is one who stirs up disputes among the Jews all the world over, and is a ringleader of the Nazarene heretics. ⁶ He even attempted to desecrate the Temple itself, but we caught him; ⁷ OMITTED TEXT ⁸ And you will be able, by examining him on all these points, to satisfy yourself as to the charges which we are bringing against him." ⁹ The Jews also joined in the attack and bore out his statements.

¹⁰ On a sign from the Governor, Paul made this reply: "Knowing, as I do, for how many years you have acted as Judge to this nation, it is with confidence that I undertake my own defense. ¹¹ For you can easily ascertain that it is not more than twelve days ago that I went up to worship at Jerusalem, ¹² Where my prosecutors never found me holding discussions with any one, or causing a crowd to collect--either in the Temple, or in the Synagogues, or about the city; ¹³ And they cannot establish the charges which they are now making against me. ¹⁴ This, however, I do acknowledge to you, that it is as a believer in the Cause which they call heretical, that I worship the God of my ancestors. At the same time, I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the prophets; ¹⁵ And I have a hope that rests in God--a hope which they also cherish--that there will one day be a resurrection of good and bad alike. ¹⁶ This being so, I strive at all times to keep my conscience clear before both God and man. ¹⁷ After some years' absence I had come to bring charitable gifts to my nation, and to make offerings; ¹⁸ And it was while engaged in this that they found me in the Temple, after completing a period of purification, but not with any crowd or disorder. ¹⁹ There were, however, some Jews from Roman Asia who ought to have been here before you, and to have made any charge that they may have against me-- ²⁰ Or else let my opponents here say what they found wrong in me when I was before the Council, ²¹ Except as to the one sentence that I shouted out as I stood among them--'It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on my trial before you to-day'."