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  • From: "Kym Smith" <khs AT picknowl.com.au>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Did Paul know Peter's travel locations?
  • Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 21:21:32 -0400


Dear mark,

You may be right. As you say, mine is probably a standard understanding of
the passage; I’ve not heard your idea before. I do have a couple of
comments.

<<< I understand Paul to be referring in this comment to Jerusalem, where he
has not been building, and where Jesus was named Christ, and the 12 apostles
appointed. >>>

Would not ‘where Christ has already been named’ (15:20) – which you say
was in Jerusalem – be equivalent to ‘fully preached the gospel of Christ’
(15:19) – which Paul had done ‘from Jerusalem and as far round as
Illyricum’ (15:19). Is this not what the whole of v.20 is saying:
Thus making it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already
been named…
Paul could equally have said:
Thus making it my aim to name Christ, not where the gospel has already
been preached…
If this is so then Jerusalem has no special claim here to being the place
‘where Christ has already been named’.

Added to this is the fact that Paul did not want to ‘build on another’s
foundation’. Surely if Jerusalem were intended, it is more likely that he
would have said ‘the foundation of others (plural)’ rather than ‘another’s
(singular)’.

<<< Note that in v. 23 he states, "but now, no longer having room [TOPON] in
those regions, and having great desire to come to you for many years...").
This is the statement that follows v. 22, "and therefore I have been
prevented (much) from coming to you." It is the completion of the eastern
region arc that has occupied him and kept him from Rome thus far, not
something about an apostolic foundation in Rome, as far as I can see. >>>

I think you are probably right here about Paul needing to complete those
regions in his first ‘eastern arc’ before heading further west. It does
raise an interesting question, however, which brings us back to the work
of both Peter and Paul. How can Paul say that he no longer has room in
those regions when he has not ministered at all – as far as we know – in
the northern reaches of Asia Minor. Surely those parts would also have
been part of his ‘arc’ through that area. As I have already made clear, I
suspect that he has no room because he knows that Peter has worked in and
coordinated the mission to those parts, i.e. the addressees of 1 Pet 1:1.

<<< This reading eliminates the problems of both his proclaiming the gospel
to Rome in this letter, and his plan to do the same upon his planned arrival,
which seem to undermine his point as usually understood. >>>

The problem is only a problem if we insist that there was some tension
between the apostles, especially Peter and Paul, that made their working
in the same place an issue. If there were no tension – as I argue – then
the opportunity of working together for a time would have been eagerly
anticipated. What Paul would not be doing was ‘laying a foundation’. He
would not have to establish a new congregation, as it were. Rather he was
free to preach in the context of existing congregations/churches where
they could be ‘mutually encouraged’ (Rom 1:12). That does not mean that he
would not attempt to preach to unbelievers, but if he did he would have
existing congregations to feed them into. Paul’s desire was to work among
the brethren at Rome, but his intention, ultimately, was to pass through
that city to new fields in Spain.

Sincerely,

Kym Smith
Adelaide
South Australia
khs AT picknowl.com.au




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