Acts 25:8
While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended any thing at all. While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Cæsar, have I offended any thing at all.
Paul answered for himself by denying that he had committed any offense at all against the law of the Jews, against the temple, or against Caesar. He gave this answer calmly and plainly. His answer exposed the accusations as false and unsupported, for his accusers merely repeated charges of heresy, treason, and sacrilege without bringing any witnesses to prove them.
The dispute behind the charges concerned Jewish doctrine. Even if the charges had been proved, they did not make him deserving of death or imprisonment under Roman law, as Festus recognized. This defense took place amid accusations driven by hostility and a plot to kill him, when he was entitled to a fair hearing face to face with his accusers, and Festus helped preserve his life by refusing to hand him over. As a prisoner facing death, his witness in this defense stands as an example of faith in God's word resisting human power when it is used to support evil.