Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council,
Before Felix Paul challenged the Jews present to state any evil doing they had found in him while he stood before the council. The demand rested on the absence of the Jews from Asia, who had found him purified in the temple with neither multitude nor tumult and who should have been before Felix to object if they had anything against him. With those true witnesses absent, he called on those present to name any wrong they had actually found. The charges of sedition and profaning the temple were false.
The only matter they could point to was his declaration that touching the resurrection of the dead he was called in question, showing the case arose from a religious dispute rather than proven evil, sedition, or misconduct. His calm bearing and forcible arguments before the council had left their accusations baseless and exposed their malignant spirit. His innocence had been proclaimed by Roman officials, while Jewish tribunals condemned him without proving his guilt.
Though defeated before the council, his opponents remembered it, and his long imprisonment did not soften their hatred nor shake their determination to take his life. They therefore pressed Festus to send him to Jerusalem to be tried by the Sanhedrin.
Before Felix Paul challenged the Jews present to state any evil doing they had found in him while he stood before the council. The demand rested on the absence of the Jews from Asia, who had found him purified in the temple with neither multitude nor tumult and who should have been before Felix to object if they had anything against him. With those true witnesses absent, he called on those present to name any wrong they had actually found. The charges of sedition and profaning the temple were false.
The only matter they could point to was his declaration that touching the resurrection of the dead he was called in question, showing the case arose from a religious dispute rather than proven evil, sedition, or misconduct. His calm bearing and forcible arguments before the council had left their accusations baseless and exposed their malignant spirit. His innocence had been proclaimed by Roman officials, while Jewish tribunals condemned him without proving his guilt.
Though defeated before the council, his opponents remembered it, and his long imprisonment did not soften their hatred nor shake their determination to take his life. They therefore pressed Festus to send him to Jerusalem to be tried by the Sanhedrin.