Then Paul spoke up for himself. He said, “I haven’t done anything wrong against the law of the Jews or their temple, and I haven’t done anything wrong against Caesar.”
Three days later Paul called a meeting of the local Jewish leaders. When they came, Paul said to them, “My brothers, I have done nothing against our people or the customs we’ve had since long ago. But I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
I had already been made pure and clean in the Jewish way when they found me offering sacrifices in the temple courtyard. There was no crowd with me, and I wasn’t stirring up any trouble.
“We’ve found that this Paul is a troublemaker. Everywhere he goes in the world, riots break out among the Jews. He’s the leader of a cult called the Nazarenes.