The New English Bible; 53; Acts 25-Acts 28:31

the x of the apostles chapter twenty five from jerusalem to rome three days after taking up his appointment festus went up from sicily at a jerusalem where the chief priests and the jewish leaders brought before him the case against paul they asked fist as to favor them against him and braced for him to be brought up to jerusalem or they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way this does however replied quote is in state custody it says india and i shall be leaving jerusalem's shorter it myself so if you're leading man come down with me and if that is anything wrong let them prosecute him after spending eight or ten days at most in jerusalem he went down to says area and the next day he took a seat in court and ordered pork to be brought up

when he appeared the jews who had come down from jerusalem stood around bringing many grave charges which they were unable to prove costly was i have committed no offense either against the jewish low or against the tempo or against the emperor festus anxious to ingratiate himself with the jews tend to pull and asked are you willing to go up to jerusalem and stand trial on these judges before me that were posted i am now standing before the emperor's tribe you know and that is where i must be tried against the jews i have committed no fence as you very well know if i am guilty of any capital crime i do not asked to escape the death penalty but if there is no substance in the charges which these men bring against me

it is not welcome to anyone to hand me over as assault i argue to caesar then the obsessed us after conferring with his advisors replied you have appealed to seize up to cesar you shall go after an interval of some days king a good bar and let me see i have debts is it up on a courtesy visit the festus they spent several days there and joining this time fastest maples case before the king we have a man he said lift in custody by phoenix and when i was in jerusalem the chief priests and others of the juice lead an information against him they're minding his condemnation i answered them it is not roman practice to handle it any accused man before he is confronted with his accusers and given an opportunity of awesome and the

charge so or when they had come here with me i lost no time the very next day i took my seat in court and ordered the man to be brought up but when his accusers rose to speak they brought none of the charges i was expecting they merely had a certain points of disagreement with him about that peculiar religion and about someone called jesus i did man alleged to be alive finding myself a lot of my dips in such discussions i asked if he was willing to go to jerusalem and stand his trial there on these issues but blowup you to be remanded in custody for his imperial majesty's decision and i wanted him to be detained until i could send him to the emperor agrippa said to fast as i should rather like to hear the man

myself tomorrow he answered usually get him so what next day i get an uneasy came in full state and entered the audience chamber accompanied by high ranking officers and prominent citizens and on the orders of this does point was brought up then there's the same thing i get up and all you gentleman here present with us you see this man the low body of the jews approached me both in jerusalem and here locally insisting that he had no right to remain alive but it was clear to me that he had committed no capital crime and when he himself appealed to his imperial majesty i decided to send him but i have nothing definite about him to put in writing for our sovereign accordingly i have brought him up before you won't and particularly before you saw that as a

result of this preliminary inquiry i may have something to report there is no sense it seems to me in standing on the prisoner without indicating the charges against him and i said you have permission to speak for yourself then posted stoke his hand and began his defense i consider myself fortunate kin agrippa but it is before you got to make my defense to date on all the charges brought against me by the jews particularly as your ex pat in all jewish matters both our customs and are disputes and therefore i bid you to give me a patient here in my life from my youth up the life i led from the beginning among my people and in jerusalem is familiar to all jews indeed they have known me long enough and could testify if the only one but i belong to the strictest group

in our religion i lived as a fantasy and it is for hope can go by god's promise to our forefathers that i stay and in little today all twelve tribes hope to see the fulfillment of that promise worshiping with intense devotion day and night and for this very well i am impeach and impeached by jews your majesty why is it considered incredible among you that god should raise dead man to life i myself once thought it my duty to work actively against the name of jesus of nazareth and i did so in jerusalem it was i who imprisoned many of god's people buy or thought it looked at him from the chief priests and when they were condemned to death my vote was cast against them in oil over synagogues i

tried by repeated punishment to make them renounce their faith indeed my fury at rose to such a pitch that i extended my prosecution to foreign cities one one such occasion i was traveling to damascus with all sorted and commissioned from the chief priests and as i was on my way your majesty in the middle of the day i saw the light from the sky more brilliant than the sun shining or around me and my traveling companions we also to the ground and then i had a voice saying to me in the jewish language so so why do you persecute me it is hard for you this kicking against the golden i said tell me lord who you are and the lawyer replied i am jesus whom you up as

security but no rise to your feet and stand upright i have appeared to you for couples to appoint you my servant and witness to testify both the plot do have seen and the one you shall yet see all me i will rescue you from this people and from the gentiles the womb i am sending you i send you to organize and turn them from darkness to light from the dominion of satan to god so that bike trusted me they may octane forgiveness of sins and a place with those whom god has made his own and so canada but i did not dissipate the heavenly vision i turned first to the inhabitants of damascus and then to jerusalem and all the country of judea and to the gentiles and sounded the quote to repent and turn to god and to prove that

repentance by deeds that is why the jew sees me in the temple and tried to do away with me but i had gods help and so to this very day i stand and testify to great and slow like i guess at nothing beyond what was foretold by the profits and by most is that the messiah must suffer and that he the first to rise from the dead would announce the dawn to israel and to the gentiles what poe's last making his defense festus shouted at the top of his voice call you are eating too much study is driving you mad i'm not mad you excellence a simple what i am saying is sort through the king is well versed in these matters and they can i can speak freely i do not believe that he can be unaware of

any of these facts on this as being no home court no business candidate but do you believe the profits i know you do and it said to blow you think it will not take much to win me over and make a christian of me much younger co said quote i wish to god that not only you but all those also who are listening to me today might become what i am a pot from these chains with that booking rose and within the government and then the c and the rest of the company and after they had withdrawn they talked it over this man they said is doing nothing that deserves death or imprisonment ago but said the festus the fellow could have been discharged if you're not appealed to the emperor and it was decided that we should sail forward to it floats

and some other prisoners were handed over to essentially un named julius of the august and court we embarked in a ship of activity m bone for ports in the province of asia and bhutto to see in our party was it a status a macedonian from vessel annika next day we landed upside on and julius vary considerably alone portable to his friends to be cared for leaving suydam we sailed under the lead of cyprus because of eight wins then across the open sea off the coast of silly shop and bavaria and so i reached my in this er they're at least in chile and found an alexandria vessel bound for italy and protest aboard for good many days we made little headway and we were hard to do it to reach nineties then as the wind continued

against us off so monet we began to sail under the lead of crete and having the coast stumbled onto a police quote fear havens not far from the town of lassie up i know much time would be lost the frost was already over and it was risky to go on with the voyage oh that's what gave them this advice i could see gentleman he said that this voyage will be disastrous it would mean grave loss loss not only of ship and cargo but also of life but lisa julian paid more attention to the captain and to the owner of the ship and to what paul sagan and as the harbor wasn't suitable for winter in the majority went in favor of putting out to sea hoping if they could get so far the winter at phoenix that cretin hop exposed southwest and northwest so when us so that

maybe sprang up they thought that that the course was as good as achieved and weighing anchor they sealed along the coast of crete having the land but before very long a fierce wind the northeast of as they call it tore down from the land one side it caught the ship and as it was impossible to keep aig the wind we have to get away and run before it we ran under the lead of a small island called chord and with a struggle to manage to get the ships built under control when they had hoisted it aboard they made use of tackle and undergirded the ship then because they were afraid of running onto the shallows of sisters they loaned the main say oh and let him drive next day as we were making very everywhere that they began to light of the ship and

on that said day they jettisoned the ship's gear with their own hands for days on end there was no sign of either sunday or stars a great storm was raging and our last hopes of coming through a life began to fade when they had gone for a long time without food borne stood out among them and said you should have taken my advice gentleman not to seal from greed then you would have avoided this damage and loss but no i had you not to lose heart not to single life will be lost only the ship for last night the us still by be an angel of the god who is i am and home i worship do not be afraid paul he said it is ordained that you shall appeared before the emperor and be assured god has granted you the lives of all are

singing with you so keep up your cottage i trust in god that it will turn out as i have been told though we have to be cost a shock on some island the fourteenth night came and we were still drifting in the sea of adrian in the middle of the night the sailors felt that land was getting near that they sounded and found twenty fathoms sounding again after a shortened to vote they found fifteen fathoms and feeling that we might be cast ashore on a rugged coast they dropped four anchors from the stem and prayed for daylight come the sailors tried to abandon the ship they had already a lot of the ships boat pretending they were going to lay out anchors from the bones when court said to the civilian and the soldiers and less these men stay on board you cannot have you come all safely so the soldiers cut the ropes of the boat

and let a drop away shortly before daybreak coerced them all to take some food for the last fourteen days he said you of lived in suspense and gone hungry you'll have eaten nothing whatever so i beg you to have something to eat your lives depend on i remember not a hero of your kids will be lost with these words he took bread gave thanks to god in front of them or rocket and began meeting then they also blocked up college and took food themselves nowhere on board two hundred and seventy six of us you know when they had eaten as much as they wanted they lightened the ship by dumping the court and in the sea when did broke they could not recognize the land but they noticed abbey with a sandy beach on which they planned if

possible to run the ship assure so they slit the anchors and let them go at the same time they loosened the lashings of the stealing panels set the for sale to the wind and led a drive to the beach but they found themselves caught between crosscurrents and ran the ship aground so that the bow stuck fast and remained immovable while the stem was being pounded to pieces by the breakers the soldiers thought they had better kill prisoners for fear that any should swim away and escape but the centurion wanted to bring paulo safely through and prevented them from carrying out that plan he gave orders that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land the rest went to follow some on planks some on parts of the ship and thus it was that

low cave safely demand once we had made our way to safety we identified the island as well the rough islanders treated us with uncommon kindness because it was cold and had started to rain they lived a bonfire and made as a low welcome potent got together and i'm full of sticks and put them on the fire when a viper driven out by the heat fastened on his hand the islanders seeing the state hanging onto his hand said to one another the man must be a moderate he may have escaped from the sea but divine justice has not let him live or however shrug off the snake into the fire and was none the worse they still expected that any moment he would swell up or draw down did but after waiting a long time without seeing anything extraordinary happen to

him they changed their minds and know said he is a god in the neighborhood of that place the wetlands belonging to the chief magistrates of the island whose name was probably as he took as in and entertained as hospitable it for three days it's all happened but this man's father was invaded suffering from recovering boats a fever and dysentery both visited him and after prayer leader's hands upon him and helium whereupon the other sick people on the island came also and work your head they wanted us with many marks of respect and when we were leaving they put on board provisions for our needs three months have passed when we set sail in a ship which have wintered in the island she was the pastor a box of alexandria we put in at syracuse and spent three days they're then we sailed around and

i would add region after one day as so when sprang up and we meet cute you live in two days there we found fellow christians and when invited to stay a week with them and so to roam the christians they're had had news of us and came out to meet us as far as happy i forum and trace the mermaid and when paul song he gave thanks to god and to encourage when we entered rome by himself with a soldier in charge of it three days later the court together the local jewish leaders and when they were assembled he said to them my brothers i would never did anything against our people all the customs of our forefathers i'm here as a prisoner i was handed over to the romans at jerusalem they examined me and would've liked to release

me because there was no capital charge against me but the jews objected and i had no option but to appeal to the emperor not that i had any accusation to bring against my own people that is why i have asked to see you and talk to you because it is for the sake of the hope of israel the time and shades as you see they replied we have had no communication from judea nor has any country month of hours i arrived with any reports or gossip dr discredit we should like to hear from you what your views are all we know about this say is that no one has a good word to say for it so they fixed and eight and came in large numbers as his guests he doubts at length with all matter he spoke of the kingdom of god and sought to convince them

about jesus by appealing to the low on moses and the profits this went on from dawn to dusk someone won over by his arguments others remained skeptical without reaching any agreement among themselves they began to disperse but not before paul had said one thing more how well respected spoke to your father's through the prophet eyes i'll when he said quote to this people of state you will here and here but never understand you look and look but never see of these people has grown gross that caught their ears of dough and their eyes are closed otherwise their eyes might see that is here and they're hard to understand and then they might turn again and i want you therefore take notice that this salvation of god has been sent to the gentiles the

gentiles will listen he stayed there to fool he has at his own expense with a welcome for a lot of ok do in proclaiming the kingdom of god and teaching the facts about the lord jesus christ quite openly and without hindrance the reading has concluded at the set the first test of the final chapter of the acts of the apostles