2 Corinthians 11:6

Paul had just said that he was not inferior. He was not now claiming that he was inferior in speech. He evidently meant that even if his critics’ charge that he was inferior in speech was true, which it was not, no one could charge him with being inferior in knowledge. Another view is that Paul meant he was not professionally trained as a rhetorician. The Corinthians knew very well Paul’s superior knowledge of the revelations of God (cf. Ephesians 3:4-5; 1 Corinthians 2:6-11). He had expounded divine truth to his readers exhaustively in person and in his letters. Obviously knowledge is more important than speech.

Paul had previously revealed that some of his Corinthian hearers criticized him for not being a skilled rhetorician (2 Corinthians 10:10). Nevertheless Paul was as competent as any of the Twelve or any of his critics in his ability to communicate as well as in his ability to understand God’s revelations. He was responding to criticism of him here, not conceding inferiority.

The fact that the early Christians used the word "apostle" in a general sense (e.g., 2 Corinthians 8:23; Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14; et al.) and in a technical sense (e.g., 2 Corinthians 1:1; et al.) probably created some confusion. In what sense was Paul an apostle? He claimed to be an apostle on a level equal with the Twelve. Yet the word in the general sense means anyone sent out on the Christian mission, and in this sense the teachers in Corinth who were criticizing Paul were apostles. Perhaps it would be more accurate to define the Corinthians’ question about Paul as what type of apostle was he rather than was he an apostle or not.