deceive the very elect' (Matt. 24: 24), and to do this what is put forward must look like

the real thing, so let us be alert to this all the time.

Such corruption of the truth was being foisted upon the Corinthian church by the false

apostles and no wonder the Apostle Paul was concerned lest their minds should be

beguiled as Eve's was when she listened to the voice of the serpent (11: 30).

It should be pointed out that both the A.V. and R.V. in the last phrase of verse 4 miss

the point and actually give the impression that the Corinthians would be doing a good

things to tolerate these false teachers with their deception! "Ye might well bear with

him" A.V., "Ye do well to bear with him" R.V. The R.S.V. gives the true sense, "You

submit to it readily enough" and this was tragic, after they had received the Truth as

ministered so faithfully to them by the Apostle Paul. To listen to and bear with such

impostors was to be misled and dominated by them. Paul could say with truth:

Who are these superlative apostles? There are two explanations. (1) They are the

leaders of the Jerusalem assembly, Peter, James and John. (2) They refer to the false

apostles at Corinth whose conceit arrogated to themselves the position of the most

important apostles, and Paul is referring in irony to them. It is not easy to decide which is

the more likely to be true. If the reference concerns the Jerusalem apostles, then it is his

opponents' portrayal of them that he is criticizing, i.e., they were asserting that Paul's

apostleship could not compare with the leaders at Jerusalem. The Apostle is certainly not

directly criticizing the latter's position or witness. We do know that, when his own

ministry was being considered at Jerusalem as recorded in Gal. 2:, he referred to Peter,

James and John as those who `seemed to be somewhat' (Gal. 2: 6), but here the burning

question of his own apostleship was at stake at the very beginning, and there could be no

compromise with `those who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in

Christ Jesus' who evidently associated themselves with the Jerusalem leaders, and

probably asserted that their apostleship was greater than Paul's.

Again, such language as the `very chiefest apostles' could hardly apply to anyone but

them. Whatever is the true interpretation here, one thing is certain, namely, Paul's

apostleship was the equal of any other and quite independent of them. He owed nothing

to human leaders as far as his Apostleship goes. The threefold stress `not of men, neither

by man, but by Jesus Christ' (Gal. 1: 1, 11, 12, 16, 17) shows this quite clearly, and he

now demonstrates this truth in the passage with which we are dealing.

Another important point to note is that the quality of his divine calling did not depend

on the ability to speak fluently and persuasively: