"The End of the Earth"
                              (Acts 1:8)*

 

                                        E. EARLE ELLIS
                 SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

 

                                                     I

As has long been recognized, the book of Acts was organized to

depict, among other things, the geographical progress of the Christian

message from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the lands of

Syria , Asia Minor , Greece and Rome.¹ In this respect it presents the

expansion of the Christian witness from the center of Judaism to the

center of the Roman Empire , from the mission to Palestinian Jews to

the mission to Jews and Gentiles of the diaspora.

            Luke, the author of Acts and sometime companion and co-worker

of Paul,² devotes almost all of the latter part of his work to the Pauline

mission. But he pictures Paul's ministry as arising from his teachings

in the synagogue and, consequently, as directed to Jews as well as to

Gentiles. Even in the last chapter of Acts Luke represents the Apostle's

 

            *The German text of this article appears in Der Treue Gottes trauen. Beiträge ... für
Gerhard Schneider . . , eds. C. Bussmann and W. Radl (Freiburg: Herder, 1991).
            1. Acts 1:1-7:60 ( Jerusalem ); 8:1-11:18 (Judea and Samaria ); 11:19-12:25 ( Syria );
13:1-16:10 ( Cyprus and Asia Minor); 16:11-19:22 ( Greece ); 27:1-28:31 ( Rome ). In an ear-
lier usage of Luke (Luke 3:1; 4:44) and in that of Josephus (War 3, 53-58) Judea included
Caesarea, the capital of the Roman imperial province of Judea . Cf. B. Reicke, The New
Testament Era (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968) 134, 197-200, 339 (map) = GT: 99f., 146-50,
263 (Tafel III); H. Conzelmann, Die Apostelgeschichte (Tübingen: Mohr, 1963) (beigelegte
Landkarte). But see M. Hengel, "Luke the Historian and the Geography of Palestine,"
Between Jesus and Paul (London: SCM, 1983) 99 = GT: ZDPV 99 (1983) 151.
            2. Col 4:14; 2 Tim 4:11; Phm 24. See the careful case for Lukan authorship devel-
oped by C. Hemer, The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History (Tübingen: Mohr,
1989) 308-64. Cf. Hengel (n. 1) 97-128, 121 = GT: ZDPV 99 (1983) 147-83, 175; E. E. Ellis,
The Gospel of Luke ( Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, ⁵1987) 40-51. Otherwise: G. Schneider, Die
Apostelgeschichte, 2 vols. (Freiburg: Herder, 1980), vol. 1, 108-11; E. Haenchen, The Acts
of the Apostles, trans. R. Wilson (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971) 90-116 = GT (³1959)
81-103.

124                     Bulletin for Biblical Research 1  

initial preaching at Rome as primarily devoted to his appeal to the

Jews, some of whom "were persuaded . . . and some disbelieved."³

            The book of Acts, then, does not describe a transition of the

Christian mission from the Jews to the Gentiles since Jews are recipi-

ents of the message throughout the book. If Acts, like Paul's letter to

the Romans, underscores the rejection of the gospel message by the

majority of the Jewish religious leaders and by the nation, it does not

omit the continuing positive response of many individual Jews.⁴ This

fact is important for a proper interpretation of Acts 1:8:

     You shall be my witnesses
     In Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
     And to the end of the earth ( e)xa&tou th=j gh=j).

            The Isaian wording of the concluding phrase may reflect a sum-

mary of the risen Jesus' commission to his disciples in terms of the

Servant of the Lord in Isa 49:6 or it may be Luke's interpretive render-

ing.⁵ In either case it is a conscious allusion by Luke to the verse in

Isaiah where the phrase has a geographical connotation:

     I will give you as a light to the Gentiles
     That my salvation may reach
     To the end of the earth (e)sxa&tou th=j gh=j).⁶  

            The prophecy in Isaiah is not merely that the Servant's mission of

salvation will include Gentiles but, much more, that in the course of

including Gentiles the mission will extend "to the end of the earth."

As it is taken up in Acts 13:47, the prophecy retains the same double

motif, Gentile inclusion and earth-wide extension. In Acts 1:8 the

abbreviated form, "to the end of the earth," has only geographical

connotations⁷ even if there are secondary implications for the inclu-

 

            3. Acts 28:24; cf. 20:21; Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:24, 9:20; 2 Cor 11:24.
            4. Acts 11:19; 13:43; 14:1f.; 16:1; 17:1-4, 10f.; 18:4; 19:10; 20:21; 28:24. Cf. J. Jervell,
Luke and the People of God (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1972) 63: "[In Acts 281 the Gentile
mission is really only beginning." Cf. Rom 9-11.
            5. Luke also refers to Isa 49:6 in Acts 13:47 and, by allusion, in Luke 2:32. Both pas-
sages may be traditional, but they show in any case Luke's interest in retaining the
Isaian reference.
            6. So, C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66, trans. D. Stalker ( Philadelphia : Westminster ,
1969) 206, 212; B. Duhm, Das Buch Isaiah (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968)
370. Already, J. A. Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, 2 vols. ( Edinburgh :
Elliot, 1865), vol. 2, 228; somewhat differently, F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the
Prophecies of Isaiah, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950), vol. 2, 263: Jehovah has set
the Servant for a light to the Gentiles "to become his salvation to the end of the earth"
(Isa 49:6). But the Servant of the Lord performs this function whether viewed individu-
ally or, as in Acts 13:47f., 14:4, corporately manifested in his apostles, Paul and Barnabas.
            7. Cf. F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts, Revised Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989)
37f.; H. Conzelmann, Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987) 7.

                       ELLIS: "The End of the Earth"                               125  

sion of Gentiles. Therefore, it cannot be equated with the risen Jesus'

commission in Matt 28:19 to "go and make disciples of all nations,"

that is, to go to the Gentiles.⁸

            If the structure of Acts and the force of the idiom, e)sxa&tou th=j gh=j

are geographical, what is the location that is in Luke's mind? Since

Jerusalem , Judea and Samaria are specific places, probably the "end of

the earth" is also.⁹ For two reasons the reference is understood by

some scholars to be Rome.¹⁰ (1) It fits the plan of Acts which ends at

Rome , and (2) it accords with the (assumed) meaning of the phrase in

Pss Sol 8:15 (16) LXX:

       [God] brought someone from the end of the earth . . .
       He decreed war against Jerusalem .

              "The end of the earth" is thought by some writers to refer to

Pompey's coming from Rome to overrun Jerusalem in 63 B.C. But for at

least three reasons this suggestion is unacceptable. First, in the context

the phrase is probably an allusion to Jer 6:22 where "end of the earth"

is used with reference to the Babylonian conquest.¹¹ The Psalms of

Solomon, like the Qumran Commentary on Habakkuk, identifies

Babylon , as a type, with Rome or with the Romans and does so fully a

century before the Apostle Peter and John the prophet make this

equation.¹² Second, in its application to Pompey the phrase could refer

to Spain since Pompey came to the East in 67 B.C. after a command in

Spain (77-71 B.C.).¹³ Third, the phrase "end(s) of the earth" had a

 

   8. Pace F. J. Foakes Jackson and K. Lake, eds., The Beginnings of Christianity, 5 vols.
(London: Macmillan, 1920-33), vol. 4, 9: "This passage is the Lukan form of the Mat-
thean universal commission."
   9. Pace H. A. W. Meyer, The Acts of the Apostles ( New York : Funk & Wagnalls,
1883) 28: "[Acts 1:81 denotes the sphere of the apostles' work . . . up to its most general
diffusion." Meyer appears to interpret the phrase as an "ideal" universal sphere.
   10. E.g., B. Reicke, The Roots of the Synoptic Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986)
179f.; F. F. Bruce, Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977) 447f.; Haenchen (n. 2) 144n = GT:
112n. R. G. Knowling, "The Acts of the Apostles," The Expositor's Greek Testament, 5 vols.,
ed. W. R. Nicoll (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), vol. 2, 57; H. J. Holtzmann, Die Apos-
telgeschichte (Tübingen: Mohr, 1901) 25. But see W. C. van Unnik, "Der Ausdruck   (EWS
)ESXATOU THS GHS (Apostelgeschichte I 8) . . . ," Sparsa Collecta, 3 vols. ( Leiden : Brill,
1973-83), vol. 1, 386-91.
   11. So, H. E. Ryle and M. R. James, eds., The Psalms of Solomon ( Cambridge : Cam-
bridge University, 1891) 80: "The phrase is used not so much with . . . the idea of the re-
moteness of Italy from Palestine as of reproducing the language of the prophets, in
predicting the coming of the Babylonians . . . . "
   12. 1QpHab 2:10-6:12; cf. 1 Pet 5:13; Rev 17:5-10; F. F. Bruce, New Testament His-
tory (Garden City: Doubleday, 1972) 1 lf.
   13. Cf. H. A. Ormond and M. Cary, " Rome and the East," Cambridge Ancient History,
12 vols., ed. S. A. Cook et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1925-39), vol. 9, 321-25,
374-83. Van Unnik (n. 10, 1,399) points out that the author of the Psalms of Solomon was
well informed about Pompey, at least about his later life. Cf. G. B. Gray, "The Psalms

126                     Bulletin for Biblical Research 1  

common and apparently fixed meaning that was used of Spain but

could by no means apply to the capital city of the Roman Empire .

 

                                                II

In classical antiquity the inhabited earth was pictured as a disc sur-

rounded by the " Outer Sea " (w)keano&j). "The ends of the earth" (ta\ e1s-

xata th=j gh=j) referred, as W. C. van Unnik has shown,¹⁴ to the most

distant points on the rim of the disc, for example, the Arctic on the

North, India on the East, Ethiopia on the South and Spain on the

West.¹⁵ A computer search that I made of the phrase in Thesaurus Lin-

guae Grecae fully confirms van Unnik's findings. The expression has

that significance in the Septuagint and in the Patristic writers (often

quoting the Septuagint), where the phrase most often appears in

Greek literature. It was used in the same way in the classical writers

and apparently retained this geographical meaning from the fifth cen-

tury B.C. to the sixth century A.D. Thus, Herodotus († c. 420 B.C.) speaks

of an army going down through Ethiopia to "the ends of the earth"

(ta\ e1sxata gh=j),¹⁶ and a millennium later Procopius († c. A.D. 560)

speaks of Roman soldiers on the eastern frontier of Persia and India as

being "at the ends of the inhabited world" (tai=j th=j oi)koume<nhj e)s-

xatai=j).¹⁷ Writing near the turn of the first century, the geographer

Strabo († c. A.D. 21) makes this understanding of the phrase very clear:

      [The] inhabited world is an island. For wherever it has been possible for
      man to reach the ends of the earth (ta\ e1sxata th=j gh=j), sea has been
      found. And this sea we call "Oceanus."¹⁸

Citing Homer, he writes thus of the southern bounds of the earth:

 

of Solomon," Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols., ed. R. H. Charles
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1964), vol. 2, 629f.; R. B. Wright, "Psalms of Solomon," The Old Tes-
tament Pseudepigrapha, 2 vols., ed. J. H. Charlesworth (Garden City: Doubleday, 1985),
vol. 2, 641.
            14. Van Unnik (n. 10, I, 386-401) gives the most thorough and perceptive analysis
of the phrase, with special attention to the Septuagint (395-399). My computer check of
the phrase was from a compact disk produced at the University of California .
            15. Strabo, Geography 1, 1, 6; 1, 2, 31; 2, 3, 5; 2, 4, 2. Cf. Philostratus, vita Apol. 6, 1,
1; Philo, de cher. 99; idem, de som. I, 134; idem, de migr. 181.
            16. Herodotus, History, 3, 25. Cf. the play of Aeschylus († 456 B.C.), Prometheus
Bound 665: Io, put out of home and country, to be a wanderer "at the ends of the earth"
(gh=j e)p ) e]sxa&toij).
            17. Procopius, History of the Wars 2, 3, 52; cf. 6, 30, 9; 2, 22, 7, on the spread of a
plague "right out to the ends of the inhabited world" (ta\j th=j oi)koume&nhj e)sxatia&j).
            18. Strabo, Geography 1, 1, 8; cf. 1, 2, 31; 1, 4, 6.

                    ELLIS: "The End of the Earth"                               127  

      [The] Ethiopians live at the ends of the earth on the banks of Oceanus

      (e)pi\ tw|= w)keanw|\ e1sxatoi).¹⁹

              Concerning the "end of the earth" westward Strabo is even more

specific:

       Gades is "situated at the end of the earth" (e)sxa&th th=j gh=j).²⁰

              Gades was a prestigious city and the commercial hub of the west-

ern reaches of the Roman Empire . It was located west of Gibraltar

near the modern Cadiz , Spain , in the area that Strabo had earlier

identified with equivalent terminology:

       [The] promontory of Iberia which they call the Sacred Cape is the most
       westerly point of the inhabited world (dusmikw&taton th=j oi)koume&nhj).²¹

            Diodorus Siculus († c. 20 B.C.) described Gades in similar terms:

       The city of Gadeira [Gades] is situated at the end of the inhabited
       world (ta& e!sxata th=j oi)koume&nhj).²²

              Pausanius († c. A.D. 180) makes a more general allusion to the exile

of the Messenians, who returned to Greece after "fate scattered them

to the ends of the earth" (gh=j ta\ e1sxata), that is, to Italy , Sicily and

western lands (eu)esperi&taj).²³ The "western lands" also probably refer

to Spain .

            In conclusion, the use of the phrase, "end(s) of the earth," in

Greek literature confirms the initial exegetical impression stated

above that the phrase in Acts 1:8 must have a geographical signifi-

cance. In its westward extent "the end of the earth" refers generally to

Spain and specifically to the region around Gades, west of Gibraltar .

This usage rules out the view that the phrase in Acts alludes to Rome .

            A reference to Rome at Acts 1:8 is also excluded by two further

considerations. First, Rome does not mark the extent or the comple-

tion of the Christian mission in Acts, but only a new base from which

the gospel will be continued further "without hindrance" (Acts 28:31,

a)kwlu&twj).²⁴ Second, if Rome might possibly have been termed the

"end of the earth" by a parochial Psalmist in Jerusalem , it could never

have been called that by Luke, who had been in the capital and who

wrote in the diaspora to Theophilus (Acts 1:1), a cosmopolitan patron

who may have resided at Rome and who, in any case, would have

 

            19. Idem, 1, 1, 6; cf. 1, 2, 24.
            20. Idem, 3, 1, 8. Cf. 1, 2, 31 (end); 1, 1, 5: "The Islands of the Blest [ Canary Islands ]
are west of the westward limit (th=j e)sxa&thj pro\j du&sin) of Marousia" [ Morocco ].
            21. Idem, 2, 5, 14; cf. 3, 1, 4.
            22. Diodorus Siculus, History 25, 10, 1.
            23. Pausanius, Description of Greece 4, 29, 13; 4, 26, 5.
            24. Rightly, Schneider (n. 2), I, 203n.

128                   Bulletin for Biblical Research 1

thought it absurd to give such a designation to the ruling center of the

Empire.

                                                 III

  If "the end of the earth" in Acts 1:8 refers to a specific place on the rim

of the world, only two locations come into serious consideration, Ethi-

opia on the South and Spain on the West. The former place has been

suggested on the basis of the episode of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts

8:26-40.²⁵ It is supported by Luke's explicit statement that the eunuch

was "returning" (8:28) to his land, and that after his conversion and

baptism he "was going on his way" (8:39, e)poreu&eto th\n o(do&n).

            However, against identifying Ethiopia as the place in mind at

Acts 1:8 are the following considerations: (1) At most, Luke portrays

only a prospective evangelization of Ethiopia by an otherwise insig-

nificant representative figure. (2) He places the episode in the midst

of the Christian missionary enterprise "in Judea and Samaria " and

(3) gives no further attention to the movement of Christianity south-

ward.²⁶ (4) On the whole he structures the latter half of his work

around the mission of Paul and that means, geographically, the move-

ment of Christianity westward. Is there evidence that may support

the view that in Acts 1:8 Luke has in mind the western "end of the

earth," that is, Spain ?

            It is the Apostle himself who first refers to Spain as the western

goal of his mission. Writing to the Christians in Rome , he says:

       When I go to Spain
        I hope to see you in passing.²⁷

              Clement of Rome , a younger contemporary of Paul, who wrote a

letter to Paul's church at Corinth a few years (c. A.D. 70)²⁸ or a few

decades (c. A.D. 95)²⁹ after the Apostle's martyrdom in Rome (c. A.D. 67),

 

            25. So, T. C. G. Thornton, "To the End of the Earth," ET 89 (1977-78) 374f.
            26. The mentions of Cyrenians (Acts 6:9; 11:20; 13:1) and Alexandrians (6:9; 18:24)
are not really exceptions to this.
            27. Rom 15:24, 28.
            28. So, J. A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (London: SCM, 1976) 327-
35; G. Edmundson, The Church in Rome in the First Century (London: Longmans, 1913)
187-202.
            29. So, J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 3 vols. in 5 (London: Macmillan, 1890),
vol. 1, i, 346-58; A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius II: Die
Chronologie, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1958), vol. 1, 255; L. W. Barnard, The Apostolic Fa-
thers and their Background, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1966) 12. L. L. Welborn ("On the Date of
First Clement," Biblical Research 29 (1984) 35-54, 37, raises significant objections to the
Domitianic date, but he is less persuasive when he limits the "calamities and reverses"
(I Clem 1:1) to internal church quarrels and disconnects the date of the letter (A.D. 80-
140) from external persecutions and problems.

                       ELLIS: "The End of the Earth"                               129  

is the earliest and best evidence that Paul did in fact fulfil his intention

to undertake a mission to Spain . He summarizes the Apostle's achieve-

ments in part as follows:

     Having become a preacher in the East and in the West (th=| du&sei)
     [Paul] received the noble (gennai=on) renown of his faith
     Having taught righteousness in the whole world
     Having reached the limits of the West (to\ te&rma th=j du<sewj)
     And having witnessed before the governing authorities
     Thus he departed from the world
     And was received up into the holy place. . . . ³⁰

            In writings of the classical period the phrase, to\ te&rma th=j gh=j, was

an idiom equivalent to e1sxata th=j gh=j.³¹ Like the latter phrase such

terminology referred in its westward reference most often to Spain

(and sometimes to Gaul or Britain ) but, for the reasons mentioned

above, never to Rome.³² The following examples may suffice to illus-

trate this usage:

      [Ephorus] imagined that the Iberians, who dwell in such a large part of
      the western world (e)speri&ou th=j), were a single city.³³

      The distance from East to West (du&sin) [is] greater . . . From India to Ibe-
      ria is less than 200,000 stadia . . .³⁴

      The first part of Europe is the Western (e)spe&rion), namely, Iberia³⁵

        [The Greeks] say that the Western section [of the world] is from the
      Gulf of Issus [east of Tarsus ] to the capes of Iberia , which are the most
      westerly parts (dusmikw&tata).³⁶

      The regions to the West (du&sin) of Europe as far as Gades  . . . ³⁷  

      The temple of Hercules in Gades [is said to be] . . . the end of both earth
      and sea (gh=j kai\ qala&tthj to\ pe&raj).³⁸

      The city of Gades is located at the limits of Europe (to\ th=j Eurw&phj te&rma).³⁹

 
            30. I Clem 5:6f. On the date A.D. 67 cf. Edmundson (n. 28), 147-63.
            31. The specific phrase, to\ te&rma th=j du&sewj, is rare if not unique. But cf. the similar
terma&twn gh=j (Philo, Deu immut. 79; cf. idem, vita Mos. 1, 2) and oi)koume&nhj te&rmata (Euse-
bius, vita Const. 1, 8, 3f.).
            32. Also, for a writer in Rome "the West" ordinarily meant Gaul or Spain , but cer-
tainly not Rome .
            33. Josephus, c. Apion. 1, 67. Cf. Tacitus, History, 4, 3.
            34. Strabo, Geography 1, 4, 6; cf. 1, 2, 31; 2, 1, 1.
            35. Idem, 3, 1, 2.
            36. Idem, 2, 4, 3.
            37. Idem, 2, 4, 4.
            38. Idem, 3, 5, 5.
            39. Philostratus, vita Apol. 5, 4; cf. 4, 47; Pliny, Natural History 3, 1, 3-7.

130               Bulletin for Biblical Research 1

     You have come from the Pillars of Hercules [= the straits of Gibraltar ]⁴⁰
      From the Ocean and
      From the uttermost limits of the earth (terminisque ultimis terrarum).⁴¹

The last four examples show, I believe, that in its specific reference to\

te&rma th=j du<sewj; in I Clem 5:7, like the westward reference of e)sxa&tou

th=j gh=j in Acts 1:8, refers to the region around Gades, west of

Gibraltar.⁴²

                                                  IV  

In view of the meaning of "end of the earth" in the Greco-Roman lit-

erature, the phrase in Acts 1:8 almost certainly alludes to the exten-

sion of the Gospel to Spain and, more specifically, to the city of Gades .

The command is, of course, addressed to the apostles as a whole and

not to Paul, and one might argue that it refers to "the ends of the

earth," that is, to the extent of their missions generally, with the sin-

gular e)sxa&tou employed as an allusion to Isa 49:6. However, in Acts

13:47 Luke explicitly applies to the Pauline mission the commission to

the "end of the earth" and thereby specifies the apostle who will be

the one to fulfil the command in his contribution to the church's

expanding mission. Furthermore, he does not hesitate to alter the Old

Testament text elsewhere, for example in Acts 2:17-21, to highlight

his interpretation or application of it. If he had wished to indicate the

spread of the gospel to the bounds of the earth universally, he could

easily have utilized the plural e)sxa&twn or e)xa&touj without foreclosing

the allusion to Isaiah, especially at Acts 13:47. In the light of these fac-

tors, of the total plan of Acts and of the equivalent idiom in I Clem

5:7, Luke very probably used the singular intentionally and with con-

temporary geographical usage in mind, that is, "the end of the earth"

as it was applied to Gades and to the adjacent region at the extreme

limits of the West.

            If the author of Acts is Luke, he doubtless knew of Paul's plans for

a Spanish mission. If he wrote before the mission was undertaken, say

A.D. 62-63,⁴³ or when it was in progress, the open-ended conclusion of

 

            40. Cf. L. Schmitz, "Heracles," Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythol-
ogy, 3 vols., ed. W. Smith, Boston : Little, Brown, 1859, II, 393-401, 397.
            41. Livy, History 21, 43, 13; cf. 23, 5, 11.
            42. So, already, Lightfoot (n. 29), I, ii, 30f.
            43. So, Hemer (n. 2) 365-410, 408 (A.D. 62); Reicke (n. 10) 174-80, 178 (c. A.D. 62);
A. Harnack, The Date of Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels ( London : Williams & Norgate,
1911) 99 (before the end of Paul's trial). Also advocating an A.D. 64 or earlier date for
Acts, according to Hemer's list (367f.), are the following twentieth-century scholars:
P. S. Bihel, E. M. Blaiklock, F. Blass, G. Edmundson, F. V. Filson, J. Finegan, E. R. Goode-
nough, D. Guthrie, E. F. Harrison, R. N. Longenecker, A. J. Matill, J. Munck, P. Parker,
R. B. Rackham, A. T. Robertson, J. A. T. Robinson, C. C. Torrey, V. E. Vine.

                     ELLIS: "The End of the Earth"                               131

Acts would, to some extent, be clarified. In that case Luke did not

mention the mission to Gades because, as he finished his volume, it

was still outstanding. If he wrote after Paul's mission to Spain but dur-

ing the Neronian persecution (A.D. 65-68), he may well have had other

reasons for ending his book without explicitly mentioning either Paul's

release or a subsequent Spanish mission.⁴⁴ If he wrote after A.D. 68,

however, it is more difficult to perceive why he would create or record

a preview of the gospel going to Gades and then say nothing more

about it.

            As both J. B. Lightfoot⁴⁵ and Adolf Harnack⁴⁶ recognized, Paul's

release from his first Roman imprisonment is a basic historical fact

from which critical reconstructions of early Christian history should

proceed. That his release was followed by a journey to Spain is well

attested in I Clem 5:7⁴⁷ and is entirely in accord with Paul's earlier

mission strategy known from the book of Acts and from his letters.

Paul established churches in hub-cities that were centers of trade

and transport or were on well-traveled arteries of the Roman road

system—Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth , Ephesus . Thereby, he was

able to evangelize not only the local populace but also merchants,

travelers and visitors passing through. In his concern to evangelize

 

            44. Acts 26:32 reflects an optimism that Paul would be (or had been) acquitted but,
as I have suggested elsewhere, Luke may have wished not to call attention to Paul's re-
lease in order to protect Paul or to protect the Roman magistrate who released him. Cf.
E. E. Ellis, Pauline Theology: Ministry and Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989) 107-11.
            45. Lightfoot (n. 29), I, ii, 30 (on I Clem 5:7): "This journey of Paul westward [to the
pillars of Hercules] supposes that Paul was liberated after the Roman captivity related
in the Acts . . . . "Harnack (n. 29, I, 239) also considered Paul's mission to Spain to he
probable as did T. Zahn and A. Deissmann. Otherwise: Bruce (n. 10) and A. Schlatter. Cf.
A. Deissmann, Paul, trans. W. Wilson (New York: Harper & Row, 1957) 248; A. Schlatter,
The Church in the New Testament Period (London: SPCK, 1955) 220, 236; T. Zahn, Introduc-
tion to the New Testament, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1963), vol. 2, 60-67.
            46. Harnack (n. 29), I, 239f.: "I hold the release of Paul from his first imprisonment
[in Rome ] to be a certain fact of history" (gesicherte Tatsache, 240n.); "on chronological
grounds no objections can be raised against the report that Paul went to the "te&rma th=j
du&sewj, that is, to Spain " (239). He gives, among other reasons, the following: I Clem 5:7
and the five years or more between the end of Paul's two-year work in Rome (Acts
28:30) and his execution. So also, H. W. Tajra, The Trial of St. Paul (Tübingen: Mohr, 1989)
196; Hemer (n. 2) 390-404; C. Spicq, Le Èpîtres Pastorales, 2 vols. (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1969),
vol. 1, 126-46; W. Rordorf , "Nochmals: Paulusakten und Pastoralbriefe," Tradition and
Interpretation in the New Testament, ed. G. F. Hawthorne with Otto Betz ( Grand Rapids :
Eerdmans, 1987) 322. In addition, Paul's journey to Rome reflected in the Pastoral epis-
tles and in the Acts of Paul (c. A.D. 190) is quite different from that in Acts 20-28. Cf.
T. Weiss, The History of Primitive Christianity, 2 vols. (New York: Wilson-Erickson, 1937),
vol. 1, 389-92; Rordorf, 324.
            47. Paul's journey to Spain also appears in Acts of Peter (with Simon) 1, 1 (A.D. 160-
190) and in the Muratorian Canon.

132                  Bulletin for Biblical Research 1  

Spain he would, following his earlier practice, have considered Gades

the prime location for his purposes.

            Settled by Phoenicians, Gades in Paul's day was an allied Roman

municipium that Strabo rated in the density of its populace, in wealth

and in prestige as the second city of the Roman world.⁴⁸ It was a

major commercial center connected to other Spanish cities by "a

splendid road system" (Albertini) and with fishing and merchant

ships plying their trade along the western coasts of Europe and

Africa and as far north as Britain.⁴⁹ It maintained a flourishing sea-

traffic with Rome , which in good weather was only a seven-day voy-

age,⁵⁰ and it may have exported fish as far east as Palestine.⁵¹

            There is little evidence for Jewish settlements in Spain in the first

century. Josephus states in one place that Antipas was exiled there in

A.D. 39,⁵² and a later rabbinic tradition says that a temple-weaver

migrated there after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.⁵³ The best

evidence for a Jewish presence in Spain is Paul's stated intention in

Rom 15:24, 28 to go there since he customarily preached first to Jews

and God-fearers in the synagogue. This is also sufficient answer to the

objection that Paul would not have been fluent in the language(s)

used at Gades.

            With the phrase, "the end of the earth," in Acts 1:8 Luke signals

his knowledge of a (prospective) Pauline mission to Spain and his

intention to make it a part of his narrative. For reasons that are not

altogether clear, he concludes his book without mentioning the Span-

ish mission. If he wrote before A.D. 68, the omission can be explained.

It is less easy to do so if he wrote after that date. To the various rea-

sons advanced by numerous scholars for an early date for Acts, Acts

1:8 now adds one more. All of the arguments together lead me, after

some consideration, to revise my dating of Luke-Acts from an earlier

judgment of "about A.D. 70" to a date in the mid-sixties.⁵⁴

 

            48. Strabo, Geography 3, 5, 3. Cf. A. N. Sherwin White, The Roman Citizenship (Ox-
ford: Clarendon, 1980) 185, 188f., 301-4, 340-43; F. Oertel, "The Economic Unification of
the Mediterranean Region," in Cook (n. 13), X, 407f. 415.
            49. Strabo, Geography 3, 2, 1; 3, 4, 3. Cf. E. Albertini, "The Latin West," in Cook (n.
13), vol. 11, 499f.; T. Mommsen, The Provinces of the Roman Empire, 2 vols. ( Chicago : Ares,
1974), vol. 1, 74f.; M. P. Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire
(Chicago: Ares, 1974) 141f., 152-57, 163, 208, 235.
            50. Charlesworth (n. 48) 155.
            51. M. Shabbat 22:2; M. Makshirim 6:3; cf. S. Applebaum, "Economic Life in Pales-
tine," Compendia Rerum Judaicarum ad Novum Testamenturn, ed. S. Safrai et al., Assen
1974–, I, 2 (1976) 670.
            52. Josephus, War 2, 183; but see idem, Antiquities 18, 252.
            53. S. Applebaum, " ... Jewish Communities in the Diaspora," in Safrai (n. 51), I, 1
(1974) 482. Cf. M. Baba Batra 3:2.
            54. Ellis (n. 2) 55-60; idem, "Dating the New Testament," NTS 26 (1980) 488, 500.