2 Corinthians 11:5

For I suppose The connection of thought seems to be as above. If they had been preaching another Gospel, you might have borne with them, but when preaching the same Gospel they can arrogate no superiority over me, for I am on an equality with the very highest.

I was not a whit behind Rather, I have not fallen short in any way, i.e. I neither have been, nor am now, in the least inferior.

the very chiefest apostles Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 12:11. Most modern editors render by "these surpassers of the Apostles" (Alford), "those Apostles extraordinary" (Plumptre) (literally, the overmuch Apostles), regarding the Greek as ironical and interpreting the passage as referring to the false teachers. Chrysostom and the ancient interpreters refer it to St Peter and the rest of the twelve. But possibly there is no personal reference at all. St Paul may mean that no Apostles existed anywhere, however great they might be, who could claim superiority over him. Cf. Galatians 2:6; Galatians 2:9. Robertson has some interesting remarks on the common interpretation: "Some cannot understand the feeling which prompts an expression like this. Shallow men would call it egotism, vanity, folly, as if egotism consisted only in speaking of oneself. True Christian modesty is not the being ignorant of what we are, neither does it consist in affecting ignorance. It consists in this in having a high and sublime standard set before us, so that we feel how far we are from attaining to that."