Φρυγία

From the study of Acts 16:6

Range of meaning

Phrygia was an ethnic region whose name was much older than Roman borders. Part of it lay in the province of Asia, and part, around Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, lay in the province of Galatia. Galatikos can mean belonging to the Roman province of Galatia, which stretched south to Lycaonia and Pisidia. It can also mean belonging to ethnic Galatia, the Celtic tribes who settled around Ancyra, Pessinus and Tavium in the 3rd century BC.

Against the English

Most versions say 'the region of Phrygia and Galatia', which suggests two lands. NASB's 'the Phrygian and Galatian region' keeps the Greek's single description.

Used elsewhere in the period

Acts 18:23 has a similar but reversed phrase: 'the Galatian region and Phrygia'. Inscriptions show that Iconium and Antioch were thought of as 'Phrygian' cities inside the province of Galatia. Ramsay and Hemer argued from inscriptions for a 'Phrygian-Galatic' district.

From the study of Acts 2:10

Range of meaning

Phrygia: an ethnic and cultural region of inland Asia Minor; in Roman times split between the provinces of Asia and Galatia, so it is a regional, not a provincial, name. Pamphylia: the southern coastal strip between Lycia and Cilicia.

Against the English

English versions all transliterate the names. The only risk is a reader assuming these are political units like modern countries; they are traditional regions that sometimes cut across Roman provincial lines.

Used elsewhere in the period

Josephus reports that Antiochus III resettled 2,000 Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylonia in Lydia and Phrygia around 200 BC (Antiquities 12.147–153). Pamphylia (Side) appears in 1 Maccabees 15:23. In a letter quoted by Philo, Agrippa I lists Jewish colonies in 'Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria … Pamphylia, Cilicia, most of Asia as far as Bithynia and Pontus' (Embassy to Gaius 281–282), a list very much like Acts 2:9–11.