For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.
Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,
I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.
I have been a fool! You forced me to it. Indeed you should have been the ones commending me, for I am not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.
You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.
they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.”
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.