Acts 17:28

Here Paul cited lines from two Greek writers who expressed ideas that were consistent with divine revelation. The Cretan poet Epimenides (ca. 600 B.C.; cf. Titus 1:12) had written, "For in thee we live and move and have our being." [Note: From his poem Cretica, cited by Longenecker, p. 476.] The Cilician poet Aratus (c. 315-240 B.C.), and Cleanthes (331-233 B.C.) before him, had written, "We are also his offspring." [Note: From Aratus’ Phaenomena 5, and Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, also cited ibid.] Paul’s purpose in these quotations was to get his audience to continue to agree with him about the truth.