King James VersionActs24

Acts

1 And af­ter five days Ana­nias the high priest de­scend­ed with the el­ders, and with a cer­tain or­a­tor named Ter­tul­lus, who in­formed the gov­er­nor against Paul. 2 And when he was called forth, Ter­tul­lus be­gan to ac­cuse him, say­ing, See­ing that by thee we en­joy great quiet­ness, and that very wor­thy deeds are done unto this na­tion by thy prov­i­dence, 3 We ac­cept it al­ways, and in all places, most no­ble Fe­lix, with all thank­ful­ness. 4 Notwith­stand­ing, that I be not fur­ther te­dious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemen­cy a few words. 5 For we have found this man a pesti­lent fellow, and a mover of sedi­tion among all the Jews through­out the world, and a ringlead­er of the sect of the Nazarenes: 6 Who also hath gone about to pro­fane the tem­ple: whom we took, and would have judged ac­cord­ing to our law. 7 But the chief cap­tain Lysias came upon us, and with great vi­o­lence took him away out of our hands, 8 Com­mand­ing his ac­cusers to come unto thee: by ex­am­in­ing of whom thy­self mayest take knowl­edge of all these things, where­of we ac­cuse him. 9 And the Jews also as­sent­ed, say­ing that these things were so. 10 Then Paul, af­ter that the gov­er­nor had beck­oned unto him to speak, an­swered, Foras­much as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this na­tion, I do the more cheer­ful­ly an­swer for my­self: 11 Be­cause that thou mayest un­der­stand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to wor­ship. 12 And they nei­ther found me in the tem­ple dis­put­ing with any man, nei­ther rais­ing up the peo­ple, nei­ther in the syn­a­gogues, nor in the city: 13 Nei­ther can they prove the things where­of they now ac­cuse me. 14 But this I con­fess unto thee, that af­ter the way which they call heresy, so wor­ship I the God of my fa­thers, be­liev­ing all things which are writ­ten in the law and in the prophets: 15 And have hope to­ward God, which they them­selves also al­low, that there shall be a res­ur­rec­tion of the dead, both of the just and un­just. 16 And here­in do I ex­er­cise my­self, to have al­ways a con­science void of of­fence to­ward God, and toward men. 17 Now af­ter many years I came to bring alms to my na­tion, and of­fer­ings. 18 Where­upon cer­tain Jews from Asia found me pu­ri­fied in the tem­ple, nei­ther with mul­ti­tude, nor with tu­mult. 19 Who ought to have been here be­fore thee, and ob­ject, if they had ought against me. 20 Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil do­ing in me, while I stood be­fore the coun­cil, 21 Ex­cept it be for this one voice, that I cried stand­ing among them, Touch­ing the res­ur­rec­tion of the dead I am called in ques­tion by you this day. 22 And when Fe­lix heard these things, hav­ing more per­fect knowl­edge of that way, he de­ferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief cap­tain shall come down, I will know the ut­ter­most of your mat­ter. 23 And he com­mand­ed a cen­tu­ri­on to keep Paul, and to let him have lib­er­ty, and that he should for­bid none of his ac­quain­tance to min­is­ter or come unto him. 24 And af­ter cer­tain days, when Fe­lix came with his wife Drusil­la, which was a Jew­ess, he sent for Paul, and heard him con­cern­ing the faith in Christ. 25 And as he rea­soned of righ­teous­ness, tem­per­ance, and judg­ment to come, Fe­lix trem­bled, and an­swered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a con­ve­nient sea­son, I will call for thee. 26 He hoped also that mon­ey should have been giv­en him of Paul, that he might loose him: where­fore he sent for him the of­ten­er, and com­muned with him. 27 But af­ter two years Por­cius Fes­tus came into Fe­lix' room: and Fe­lix, will­ing to shew the Jews a plea­sure, left Paul bound.