Epekeina combines epi (upon/over) + ekeina (those things, that region) and means "beyond" or "on the other side of." It appears only once in the NT (Acts 7:43), where Stephen quotes Amos 5:27 in his indictment of Israel's idolatry. The word marks what lies past known boundaries.
The single NT use of epekeina is striking: God's judgment will carry Israel beyond the borders they knew — into exile, past the limits of safety and home. Yet "beyond" in Scripture is not only a place of exile. It is also the realm of promise. Abraham was called beyond his homeland. The resurrection sends the gospel beyond Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Every missionary journey crosses an epekeina — a going beyond the familiar into God's expanding kingdom. The limits of the comfortable are always the launching pads of the divine advance.