Philippians 3:4

Though I myself might have confidence in the flesh: if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more.

In this and the following verses, Paul defended himself against any who might have said, "Paul is decrying privileges to which he himself cannot lay claim. He minimizes them because he never had them and cannot get them. The grapes are sour![15] As Barclay put it, "Paul set out his credentials, not in order to boast, but to show that he had had every privilege that a Jew could enjoy, and had risen to every attainment to which a Jew could rise."[16]

[15] William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary, Philippians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1962), p. 155.

[16] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 57.