where this term is common, especially in connection with a proclamation
of salvation to the nations; Paul seems to be compelled to continue west-
ward until he reaches Spain; and the connection between Spain and “the
end of the earth” is a natural one. Thus, there are good reasons to believe
not only that Paul understood his own Gentile mission in terms of the Ser-
vant’s mission among the nations, but also that the territorial scope of the
Servant’s mission (to the ends of the earth) provided Paul with the terri-
torial dimensions of his own apostolate. At the very least, it can be said that
this provides a much more plausible scriptural background to Paul’s terri-
torial imperative than any other that has been suggested thus far.
To sum up: these four factors strongly suggest that Paul operated on the
basis of a grand missionary vision. Called by God and entrusted with the
gospel “to the uncircumcised,” Paul was thereby commissioned to com-
plete the Servant’s task of announcing salvation to all the nations to the
ends of the earth, an enterprise which, when completed, would usher in
Christ’s parousiaand the consummation of salvation. The vision is breath-
taking in its scope. The grandness of its territorial dimension is fully in
keeping with the loftiness of Paul’s own personal role and the finality of the
temporal framework within which it is placed.
The Gritty Realities
A grand vision is one thing; work in the field, quite another. Without yet
raising the question of how the grand vision might have influenced Paul’s
actual plans and itinerary, we need to take note of the gritty realities that
he inevitably encountered as a travelling missionary and which shaped his
mission in significant ways. Given the constraints and the concerns of this
chapter, we will have to be content with what amounts to little more than
a list of these, though a full study of them would be very fruitful.
Geographical Expanse Perhaps the basic constraining reality is the sheer
geographical expanse of the territory that Paul saw as properly his own. The
call to extend God’s salvation to “the end of the earth” (cf. Isa. 49:6) has
a noble ring to it. But the end of the earth, i.e., Spain, stands some 4,000
hard-slogging kilometres distant from a starting point at Antioch on the
Orontes. Broadening coverage outward from this narrow ribbon of territory
would add hundreds of kilometres more. And this is only a portion of the
Roman oikoumenê.
Travel The fact that Paul could even contemplate travels of such magni-
tude is due to the Pax Romanaand the mobility it made possible (Riesner
1994, 273–82; Meeks 1983, 16–18; Hock 1980, 27–29; Rapske 1994). A net-
work of roads stretched outwards from the golden milestone in Rome