about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, among whom are you
also” (1:5), Paul has legitimate authority to exercise the same apostleship
in Rome as well, even if the circumstances require a certain measure of
tact (see, e.g., 1:12). The Epistle as a whole can thus be read as Paul’s
attempt to claim Rome as part of his own apostolic territory. To quote Wed-
derburn, the church in Rome, since it was in Gentile territory, “was there-
fore in principle one of his churches, for which he was responsible, and
which was responsible to him” (1988, 142).
What is being suggested here is that Paul’s principle of working in
fresh territory (Rom. 15:20; 2 Cor. 10:15) is to be seen as a tactical conces-
sion, rather than a fundamental element in his territorial consciousness.
That is, Paul believes that, because of his calling as the apostle to the Gen-
tiles, he has jurisdiction in the whole Gentile world; although, for the sake
of his mission’s overall success, Paul chose to restrict his activity to unevan-
gelized areas. The reasons are varied, though interrelated: avoidance of
conflict, independence, justification for objection to others working in his
territories, etc. Even so, there are circumstances in which this tactical pol-
icy is set aside and overridden by his more fundamental territorial assump-
tions. This tactical policy should be seen, therefore, as one way in which
Paul’s grand vision was accommodated to certain hard realities, rather
than as a fundamental territorial principle.
Eschatological Horizon The third indication of Paul’s grand vision is the
eschatological framework within which his Gentile mission is perceived. This
aspect of Paul’s self-understanding has been well established by Munck
(1959) and needs only brief mention here. It is based on two observations.
First, there is Paul’s expectation of Christ’s imminent parousia. As is well
known, Paul’s early letters, at least, indicate that he expected the parousia
to occur during his own lifetime (1 Thess. 4:17). While Paul subsequently
had to reckon with the possibility of his own death (2 Cor. 1:8–10; Phil.
1:20–24), he nevertheless continued to believe that “the night is far gone,
the day is near” (Rom. 13:11–12; also 1 Cor. 7:29; Phil. 4:5). The second
observation concerns the Gentile mission. The significant thing is not sim-
ply that the Gentile mission takes place in the period between the resurrec-
tion and the parousiabut, furthermore, that it defines this interim period.
It is the completion of the “fullness of the Gentiles” that is supposed to trig-
ger the salvation of Israel, the coming of ‘the Deliverer,’ and the resurrec-
tion of the dead (Rom. 11:15, 25–26).
As the one primarily charged with the mission to the Gentiles, Paul, in
his own perception, “becomes the central figure in the story of salvation”
(Munck 1959, 49)—at least, in that part of the story occupying this interim
“The Field God Has Assigned” 129