period. Paul’s mission gives the present age its raison d’être; this mission’s
completion will bring the present age to an end. Paul’s grand vision includes
a temporal as well as a spatial dimension, though the concern for to plêrôma
tôn ethnôn(Rom. 11:25) carries with it a definite territorial dimension as well.
Scriptural Background Finally, the grandness of Paul’s missionary vision
is indicated by the scriptural terms in which he views it. We begin with Aus
(1979), who argues, as we have seen, that Paul’s desire to evangelize in
Spain was driven by Isaiah 66:18–21 (see above, Patterns of Selection).
This argument rests on two considerations: one, that Paul understood
Tarshish as equivalent to Tartessos and thus as a reference to Spain; and two,
that Paul would have seen Spain as the end of the earth. Thus, Aus’s argu-
ment is that Paul would have seen his mission as completed when he had
won converts in the most distant territory mentioned in Isaiah 66:19.
While the Tarshish-Tartessos connection is not implausible, it is nev-
ertheless one that is not made by any ancient writer. Josephus (A.J.1.127),
for example, reads Tarshish as Tarsus. Further, Paul nowhere cites Isaiah
66:18–21, which deprives the argument of much of its force. It is important
to note, however, that the idea of the end of the earth figures prominently
in a set of texts that Paul does mention, and which are important for his
self-conception as apostle to the Gentiles. The texts in question are all
drawn from Isaiah 49, 52 and 53, and thus are linked to the Servant figure
of Deutero-Isaiah. Paul’s references to these texts, which strongly suggest
that Paul’s view of his own mission was shaped by the perspective of the
Servant, are as follows. The account of Paul’s call, in Galatians 1:15, echoes
the call of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul quotes Isa-
iah 49:8 in the context of a discussion of Paul’s own ministry, linking the
day of salvation announced by the Servant to the time of Paul’s own mis-
sionary proclamation. In Romans 15:21, Paul justifies his policy of working
only in untouched territory by citing Isaiah 52:15; here, at least, Paul seems
to understand the Servant as a reference to Christ, since “him” in Romans
15:21 must refer to Christ, though in Isaiah 52:15 it refers back to the Ser-
vant. Still, the significant point is that here, too, Paul draws upon Servant
texts in order to explain and make sense of his mission. A similar phe-
nomenon is at work in the more general quotations in Romans 10:15 (Isa.
52:7) and Romans 10:16 (Isa. 53:1). A citation of Isaiah 52:11 also appears
in the problematic passage 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 (i.e., 6:17).
This material deserves more attention than can be given to it here (see
Donaldson 1997, 253–55; Munck 1959, 24–35; Stendahl 1976, 7–23;
Sandnes 1991; Dunn 1988, 1:7–8; 2:866; Bruce 1977, 146). Certainly, in
view of the nature of the citation in Romans 15:21, it would be pressing the