ideas of territory and of an authority operative in that territory (1984,
471–73, 480–83; see also R.P. Martin 1986, 319–24). On the other hand,
Paul’s is not an unqualified territorial claim. He raises no objection to the
activity of Peter outside Judea (Gal. 2:11; 1 Cor. 9:5). Further, Paul limits his
territory by restricting himself to areas where others have not worked and
churches have not yet been founded (2 Cor. 10:13–16; Rom. 15:20–21).
Thus, Paul’s claim to Gentile territory does not seem to be absolute.
At the same time, however, it needs to be recognized that the princi-
ple enunciated in Romans 15:20, i.e., the one of restricting his evangeliz-
ing activity to areas “where Christ has not already been named,” is not
absolute, either. We have one case, or perhaps two, where Paul seems pre-
pared to press his apostolic claim, even though others have already done the
foundational work. The less certain of the two is the case of Colossae,
where the relationship between Paul and Epaphras and the circumstances
of the founding of the church (not to mention the question of the letter’s
authenticity) are problematic. While it is not impossible, there is neverthe-
less no definite indication, as was observed already, that Epaphras had
founded the church while working under Paul’s authority. In any event,
despite the fact that the church in Colossae was founded by someone else,
so that, in the strictest sense, Paul’s letter represents an attempt to build
on a foundation already laid by someone else, Paul writes in the full author-
ity of his role as apostle to the Gentiles, treating the church there as part
of his own jurisdiction (see esp. Col. 1:24–25; 2:1, 5).
The clearer case, however, is that of Rome itself. Paul’s intentions vis-
à-vis Rome are, of course, hotly debated (see Donfried 1991). The case can-
not be discussed in detail here, but it seems clear to me that, despite the
statement in Romans 15:20, Paul has every intention to “proclaim the good
news” (cf. Rom. 15:20) in Rome (1:5–6, 13, 15). Further, this proclamation
of the gospel is not to be carried out somehow independently of the church
already there; Paul desires “to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in
Rome” (1:15). The statement of Romans 15:20 is sometimes used to blunt
the plain sense of such verses (Hultgren 1985, 131; Stuhlmacher 1991,
231–42). But, in context, this statement is oriented totally to the work
already carried out in the east, not to the projected work in the west. That
is, Paul presents this policy as a way of explaining why he has not been able
to get to Rome before this point: there was too much work to do in the east.
He shows no awareness whatsoever that the policy might be taken to imply
that Rome was off limits. Indeed, as A.J.M. Wedderburn (1988, 97–102) has
cogently argued, the clear implication of statements such as Romans 1:5–6,
11 and 15:15–16 is that, because of his apostolic commissioning “to bring
nora
(Nora)
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