Regardless of how we perceive Paul’s position vis-à-vis Judaism after his Damascus experience, he undoubtedly authored literary epistles in Greek, and thus participated in Greek literary culture. In addition to the practice of encapsulating oratory in written form, this culture encompassed methods for literary analysis such as textual criticism, grammatical analysis, discussion of the text’s external referents, and critique of style and meter. As a Greek author from Tarsus, which Strabo (63 BCE–24 CE) describes as surpassing even Alexandria in its literary education, Paul can be expected to be versed in Greek literary-critical learning. This paper offers a reading of First Corinthians from the perspective of literary culture arguing that Paul includes learned Greek grammarians when he specifies his opponents (1 Cor 1:20), that he applies literary-critical methods when he discusses the treading ox and the meaning of πάντα (”everything”; 9:9–10; 15:27), and that his enigmatic phrase μὴ ὑπὲρ ἃ γέγραπται (”not beyond what has been written”; 4:6) refers to a well-known principle in ancient literary criticism.