Diplomacy in witnessing?

Paul in today's reading plays a very shrewd game when called before the sanhedrin.  He was well aware of the rift between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  He just played it up so that they would fight and argue among themselves and he would be safe.  But he does so with great diplomacy.  He does not lie. Neither does he tell the truth.  He merely uses words cleverly.  I wonder if such diplomacy can be counted as evangelisation or witnessing.  Perhaps the last line of the reading offers us some insight. 

Courage!  You have borne witness to me in Jerusalem.  Now you must bear witness to me in Rome.  

And Rome surely did not have the Jewish lot of Sadducees and Pharisees!  That's God being diplomatic!