The Missionary Practice Of Paul

Stated by C. K. Barrett, "It was natural for Jews to think of [Paul] as a traitor. He had betrayed their law and therewith their national identity." .
             On the third visit to Jerusalem of Paul, the tension reaches its limit. Michael Goulder stated in his book of "St. Paul vs. St. Peter", "[if one] were with the Petrine or Pauline mission, one have a issue of which man will die, and kill." At then, Paul was targeted to be killed by Jewish Christian.
             Under such tensions Paul managed to insist his commission by his good using of his preaching method and personal characteristics. .
             Journey, as one of the most important and largest portion of Paul's missionary practice, is the central method of Paul's preaching. As the vision of the Jesus commanded him, Paul is entitled to preach the gospel among the gentile. And gentile in its definition is the people other than Jews. In another words, Paul is commanded to preach the massage to rest of the world. The salvation would no longer only stay in Jewish communities. Stated by Martin Hengel:.
             It was no longer concerned with gaining proselytes locally or setting up new places of worship in one place or another; rather, it extended throughout the then known world. Paul wanted to carry the massage of the "Lordship of Christ" to the end of that world .
             With this motivation, it governs Paul's Journey during his missionary practice, even in the unfinished journey plan to Spain. As figure 1 (St. Paul's Travels, David Smith) shows, Paul himself worked his commission on a world wide base of then. He had traveled most of the known regions: Syria and Cilicia, Minor Asia, Macedonia, Achaea, Illyricum and so on. Although, it is all in the Greco-Roman area, which is not such a big region for today, back to most two thousand years ago, this would be probably the whole known world for a Jew. In this case, by setting up such a long journey to walk through, Paul considered himself as the media, the container of Christ's massage; then, the further he traveled, the further the massage of Christ was preached.