St. Paul

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Hello everyone. I have a question regarding St. Paul and where he did and did not travel to in his lifetime. In Romans 15: 28 (or thereabouts) he expresses a desire to travel to Spain. Does anyone know if this actually occurred? Also, I read in a few places that it’s rumoured he even traveled to Britain. Does that story hold any weight? I appreciate all your help.
 
There is no indication that Paul traveled to Britain or Spain. He traveled mostly in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, Cyprus, Asia Minor (basically modern Turkey) and to what is now Syria and Israel. His final journey was to Italy, ending in Rome.

Tarsus, Paul’s apparent home town, was located northwest of Antioch, in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Spain would have been quite a distance and Britain way out of the range of his known travels.

Many Bibles and church histories have maps showing where Paul traveled in his missions.
 
Clement of Rome, writing to the Corinthians about 80 A.D., says Paul indeed did go to Spain.
Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects.
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“The extreme limit of the west” is understood to be Spain. I think Clement knew what he was talking about.
 
markdzettel said:
Hello everyone. I have a question regarding St. Paul and where he did and did not travel to in his lifetime. In Romans 15: 28 (or thereabouts) he expresses a desire to travel to Spain. Does anyone know if this actually occurred? Also, I read in a few places that it’s rumoured he even traveled to Britain. Does that story hold any weight? I appreciate all your help.
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We don’t know. He may have gone to Spain, or not.
 
Zenas said:
Clement of Rome, writing to the Corinthians about 80 A.D., says Paul indeed did go to Spain. “The extreme limit of the west” is understood to be Spain. I think Clement knew what he was talking about.
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That description by Clement and Paul’s stated wish in the Letter to the Romans that he wanted to go to Spain from Rome is very thin evidence that he actually ever was there. It would be more likely that Paul planned on going, but ended up being martyred before he could make the journey. But there is no solid evidence or writing that Paul traveled to Spain. Clement may have been using some hyperbole to describe the meaning to the Church of what Paul did; in his letter Clement is not discussing specific travels of Paul.

As “Diggerdomer” says, we can not be certain, since Paul’s Epistles and Acts may not describe every place he traveled. So we speculate and wonder.
 
We have no books giving biographies of the Apostles. The book of Acts is the Acts of the Apostles, not the biography of Paul. It’s overall theme is to show the movement of the preaching of the word from its origin in Jerusalem to the center of the known world Rome. It would have been anti-climatic if Luke included Paul’s preaching after his preaching in Rome.

So we have no information on Paul in Spain (or Britain) only his expressed wish. We have no Epistles to communities nor is there any mention of communities he founded there. I don’t know of any Spanish communities that claim Paul as a founder. Therefore, I doubt he went to Spain, but 1) I am no expert, 2) I have no evidence.
 
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