What is…
Phrygia

Greek: Φρυγία —transliteration: Phrugia —meaning: dry

Ancient Phrygia was a large inland region of west-central Asia Minor (modern Turkey), a high plateau of mountains and river valleys. In New Testament times its territory was split between the Roman provinces of Asia and Galatia; its exact borders shifted over centuries.

The region sat on major east-west routes.

It was divided into 2 parts, Greater Phrygia on the south, and Lesser Phrygia on the west. It is Greater Phrygia that is spoken of in the New Testament.

Inhabitants of Phrygia are called Phrygians.

Idolatry

The dominant indigenous pagan cult was that of the Mother Goddess—Phrygian Matar Kubileya (“Mountain Mother”), known to Greeks and Romans as Cybele (or Magna Mater). She was associated with mountains, wild animals (especially lions), and ecstatic rites. Her lover/partner was Attis; her priests, the Galli, practiced ritual self-castration. Worship involved drums, flutes, wild dancing, and processions. The main sanctuary was in the ancient city of Pessinus (modern Ballıhisar, Turkey); a famous aniconic black stone of the goddess was taken from there to Rome in 204 BC. The sanctuary was later completely destroyed, but archaeologists have uncovered a Cybele-with-lion figurine, and the later city that grew around the cult, plus nearby strong evidence of the goddess worship and written records.

In Phrygia, Cybele was not only a mountain mother and protector of wild nature. She also had strong ungerground, death, and underworld aspects: she was connected to the earth’s interior, to her lover Attis’s death and rebirth (mirroring vegetation dying in winter and returning in spring), and to places where the underworld was believed to break through to the surface.

Hierapolis(modern Pamukkale) had a well-known Plutonium (a toxic cave regarded as a gate to the underworld). It emitted deadly carbon-dioxide gas. Ancient writers (especially Strabo) described it as a gate to Hades (the underworld). Animals thrown in died quickly; the eunuch priests of Cybele (the Galli) could enter and survive, which was taken as proof of their special relationship with the underworld powers. The site combined Cybele’s cult with that of Pluto/Hades and was used for oracles and offerings to underworld deities.

Other false deities included Pluto, the moon-god, and various mystery and folk practices.

Mentioned in Scripture

Phrygia is mentioned 3 times, all in the Acts of the Apostles:

The idolatry environment of Phrygia helps explain the “philosophy” Paul confronts in Colossians 2: a syncretistic mix of Jewish calendar-keeping and food laws, speculative “wisdom,” veneration of angels, ascetic rules, and possibly initiation-style visionary experiences drawn from local mystery traditions and folk magic. Paul insists that Christ is the fullness of deity and that believers are already complete in Him; they do not need extra intermediaries or elemental spirits (stoicheia). Scholars such as Clinton Arnold have argued that Phrygian folk religion and local Judaism together shaped the Colossian error more than later full-blown Gnosticism.

Phrygia is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus linked it to Togarmah in the Table of Nations descending from Noah’s family (Genesis 10, but that identification is not in the biblical text itself.

Jewish population

Phrygia had a substantial Jewish population long before the New Testament. Around 210–200 BC, the Seleucid king Antiochus III settled 2,000 Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylonia in Lydia and Phrygia as military colonists to stabilize the region after a revolt. They received land, tax exemptions, and the right to live by their own laws. —Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 12.147–153

By the 1st century AD these communities were well established in cities such as Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, and Acmonia. They sent Temple tax to Jerusalem; Cicero records that the Roman governor Flaccus confiscated large sums collected in Phrygian cities around 62 BC.

Ethnic Phrygians were the older Anatolian/Indo-European population. In Roman times the population was mixed: Phrygian, Greek, Roman, and Jewish.

Early Christians

Christianity reached Phrygia early. Possible first contacts came through Pentecost pilgrims. Paul and Barnabas planted churches in Pisidian Antioch and Iconium on the 1st missonay journey (Acts 13–14); both cities had strong Phrygian elements even if they sat on provincial borders.

The Lycus Valley churches—Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis—were not founded by Paul in person. He says he had not seen the Colossian believers face to face (Colossians 2:1). Epaphras, a Colossian, evangelized the area, probably during Paul’s long stay in Ephesus (Acts 19:10; Colossians 1:7; 4:12, 13). Paul later wrote Colossians and Philemon to this circle. Laodicea is one of the 7 churches addressed in Revelation 3:14–22.

Hierapolis is also associated with the apostle Philip in later tradition; his tomb has been identified there archaeologically.

False teachers

Phrygia later became famous (and controversial) for Montanism, or the “New Prophecy,” which arose in the mid-2nd century around Pepuza and Tymion. Montanus and the prophetesses Prisca and Maximilla claimed direct inspiration by the Paraclete, expected the New Jerusalem to descend in Phrygia, practiced rigorous fasting and emphasized martyrdom and female prophecy. The movement spread widely but was rejected by most bishops as heretical. It persisted in rural Phrygia for centuries. Some scholars note possible cultural overlap with earlier Phrygian ecstatic religion, though Montanism presented itself as Christian.

Phrygia also produced some of the earliest openly Christian inscriptions in the empire (3rd century “Christians for Christians” epitaphs in the Tembris valley).

Summary

The Bible places Phrygians among the first international hearers of the Gospel, records Paul’s repeated travel through the region, and addresses thriving (if sometimes troubled) churches in its cities. The surrounding culture was one of powerful mother-goddess worship, mystery rites, and a large Jewish diaspora—exactly the mix that produced both early Christian communities and later false teachings such as Montanism.

Key biblical cities in or on the edge of Phrygia

More information

Article Version: September 15, 2026