Mr. Bertrand has a good post on discernment in general and points out that the Apostle Paul quoted a Greek poet out of context and the blogosphere doesn’t flame him for it.
Did Paul read the poem from which he quoted or is it more likely that he heard the poem recited in the marketplace or courtyard?
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I think Paul knew the context of the quotation. According to RCH Lenski (vintage Lutheran commentator influential in, and beyond, the church body Lars & I belong to), the phrase “some of your poets have also said” refers to similar quotations by Cleanthes and Timagenes. Yes, the quote in context refers to Zeus, but Lenski’s comment is,
“Zeus, of course, is not the true God but only the head of the mythological gods; but if the Greek poets themselves declared man to be his genos [offspring] … that was an inkling of the real truth that the true God called us into being, preserves, and keeps us as such, if other words, treats us as his “offspring” which we are.”
It brings to mind how many people don’t realize what kind of “Oglala holy man” Black Elk was, that his baptismal name was Nicholas Black Elk, and that he spent decades as a Catholic catechist, arguing fervently that the Great Spirit was the same as the Christian God.