And get beasts so that they may put Paul on them, and take him safely to Felix, the ruler.

So the armed men, as they were ordered, took Paul and came by night to Antipatris.

I will give hearing to your cause, he said, when those who are against you have come. And he gave orders for him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium.

But, so that I may not make you tired, I make a request to you of your mercy, to give hearing to a short statement.

And from whom you will be able, by questioning him yourself, to get knowledge of all the things which we say against him.

And the Jews were in agreement with his statement, saying that these things were so.

And they are not able to give facts in support of the things which they say against me now.

But this I will say openly to you, that I do give worship to the God of our fathers after that Way, which to them is not the true religion: but I have belief in all the things which are in the law and in the books of the prophets:

Or let these men here present say what wrongdoing was seen in me when I was before the Sanhedrin,

And he gave orders to the captain to keep Paul under his control, and to let him have everything he had need of; and not to keep his friends from coming to see him.

For he was hoping that Paul would give him money: so he sent for him more frequently and had talk with him.

So Festus, having come into that part of the country which was under his rule, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

So, he said, let those who have authority among you go with me, and if there is any wrong in the man, let them make a statement against him.

And when he had been with them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and on the day after, he took his place on the judge's seat, and sent for Paul.

And Paul said, I am before the seat of Caesar's authority where it is right for me to be judged: I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you are well able to see.

If, then, I am a wrongdoer and there is a cause of death in me, I am ready for death: if it is not as they say against me, no man may give me up to them. Let my cause come before Caesar.

Now when some days had gone by, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea and went to see Festus.

And as they were there for some days, Festus gave them Paul's story, saying, There is a certain man here who was put in prison by Felix:

So, when they had come together here, straight away, on the day after, I took my place on the judge's seat and sent for the man.

So on the day after, when Agrippa and Bernice in great glory had come into the public place of hearing, with the chief of the army and the chief men of the town, at the order of Festus, Paul was sent for.

And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all those who are present here with us, you see this man, about whom all the Jews have made protests to me, at Jerusalem and in this place, saying that it is not right for him to be living any longer.

But I have no certain account of him to send to Caesar. So I have sent for him to come before you, and specially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the business has been gone into, I may have something to put in writing.

In my opinion I am happy, King Agrippa, to be able to give my answer before you today to all these things which the Jews say against me:

The more so, because you are expert in all questions to do with the Jews and their ways: so I make my request to you to give me a hearing to the end.

And they are able to say, if they would give witness, that I was living as a Pharisee, in that division of our religion which is most regular in the keeping of the law.

And now I am here to be judged because of the hope given by God's word to our fathers;

And I gave them punishment frequently, in all the Synagogues, forcing them to say things against God; and burning with passion against them, I went after them even into far-away towns.

In the middle of the day, on the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who were journeying with me.

And when we had all gone down on the earth, a voice came to me, saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? It is hard for you to go against the impulse which is driving you.

But get up on your feet: for I have come to you for this purpose, to make you a servant and a witness of the things in which you have seen me, and of those in which you will see me;

To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me.

So, then, King Agrippa, I did not go against the vision from heaven;

But I went about, first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, preaching a change of heart, so that they, being turned to God, might give, in their works, the fruits of a changed heart.

And so, by God's help, I am here today, witnessing to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come about;

And when the decision had been made that we were to go by sea to Italy, they gave Paul and certain other prisoners into the care of a captain named Julius, of the Augustan band.

And we went to sea in a ship of Adramyttium which was sailing to the sea towns of Asia, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

And on the day after, we came to Sidon; and Julius was kind to Paul, and let him go to see his friends and take a rest.

And having gone across the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia we came to Myra, in Lycia.

Saying, Friends, I see that this journey will be one of great damage and loss, not only to the goods and the ship, but to ourselves.

And as the harbour was not a good one in which to be for the winter, the greater number of them were for going out to sea, in order, if possible, to put in for the winter at Phoenix, a harbour of Crete, looking to the north-east and south-east.

And, sailing near the side of a small island named Cauda, we were able, though it was hard work, to make the ship's boat safe:

And having got it up, they put cords under and round the ship; but fearing that they might be pushed on to the Syrtis, they let down the sails and so went running before the wind.

But now, I say to you, be of good heart, for there will be no loss of life, but only of the ship.

And so, O men, be of good heart, for I have faith in God that it will be as he said to me.

But when the fourteenth day came, while we were going here and there in the Adriatic sea, about the middle of the night the sailors had an idea that they were getting near land;

And they let down the lead, and saw that the sea was a hundred and twenty feet deep; and after a little time they did it again and it was ninety feet.

So I make request to you to take food; for this is for your salvation: not a hair from the head of any of you will come to destruction.

And when they had had enough food, they made the weight of the ship less, turning the grain out into the sea.

And when it was day, they had no knowledge of the land, but they saw an inlet of the sea with a floor of sand, and they had the idea of driving the ship up on to it if possible.

So cutting away the hooks, and letting them go into the sea, and freeing the cords of the guiding-blades, and lifting up the sail to the wind, they went in the direction of the inlet.

Then the armed men were for putting the prisoners to death, so that no one would get away by swimming.

And the rest, some on boards and some on things from the ship. And so it came about that they all got safe to land.

And when the people saw it hanging on his hand, they said to one another, Without doubt this man has put someone to death, and though he has got safely away from the sea, God will not let him go on living.

But they had the idea that they would see him becoming ill, or suddenly falling down dead; but after waiting a long time, and seeing that no damage came to him, changing their opinion, they said he was a god.

And after three months we went to sea in a ship of Alexandria sailing under the sign of the Dioscuri, which had been at the island for the winter.

Where we came across some of the brothers, who kept us with them for seven days; and so we came to Rome.

But when the Jews made protest against it, I had to put my cause into Caesar's hands; not because I have anything to say against my nation.

But for this reason I sent for you, to see and have talk with you: for because of the hope of Israel I am in these chains.

And they said to him, We have not had letters from Judaea about you, and no one of the brothers has come to us here to give an account or say any evil about you.

And they went away, for there was a division among them after Paul had said this one thing: Well did the Holy Spirit say by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers,

Go to this people and say, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:

For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well.

And for the space of two years, Paul was living in the house of which he had the use, and had talk with all those who went in to see him,

Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ without fear, and no orders were given that he was not to do so.

For I have a strong desire to see you, and to give you some grace of the spirit, so that you may be made strong;

That is to say, that all of us may be comforted together by the faith which is in you and in me.

You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you (but till now I was kept from it), so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations.

For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing:

Because by them the true word of God was changed into that which is false, and they gave worship and honour to the thing which is made, and not to him who made it, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it.

So you have no reason, whoever you are, for judging: for in judging another you are judging yourself, for you do the same things.

But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you?

Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart?

But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness;

You who give teaching to others, do you give it to yourself? you who say that a man may not take what is not his, do you take what is not yours?

You who say that a man may not be untrue to his wife, are you true to yours? you who are a hater of images, do you do wrong to the house of God?

The true Jew is not one who is only so publicly, and circumcision is not that which may be seen in the flesh:

But if the righteousness of God is supported by our wrongdoing what is to be said? is it wrong for God to be angry (as men may say)?

In no way: because if it is so, how is God able to be the judge of all the world?

Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment.

They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one:

Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God:

And to make clear his righteousness now, so that he might himself be upright, and give righteousness to him who has faith in Jesus.

What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got?

But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

Is this blessing, then, for the circumcision only, or in the same way for those who have not circumcision? for we say that the faith of Abraham was put to his account as righteousness.

And he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account;

For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For this reason it is of faith, so that it may be through grace; and so that the word of God may be certain to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Who without reason for hope, in faith went on hoping, so that he became the father of a number of nations, as it had been said, So will your seed be.

Who was put to death for our evil-doing, and came to life again so that we might have righteousness.

And not only so, but let us have joy in our troubles: in the knowledge that trouble gives us the power of waiting;

And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God.

For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil:

And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number.

So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men.

Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man.

That, as sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What may we say, then? are we to go on in sin so that there may be more grace?

We have been placed with him among the dead through baptism into death: so that as Christ came again from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, in the same way, might be living in new life.

Being conscious that our old man was put to death on the cross with him, so that the body of sin might be put away, and we might no longer be servants to sin.