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, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and 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 superlative apostles.
I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these superlative apostles, even though I am nothing.
For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it;
they only heard it said, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless.