Acts 16:6

"And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia"They" Paul, Silas and Timothy. "Region of Phrygia and Galatia" "Older geographies presumed that this meant. northern trip through Pessinus, Ancyra, and Tavium. Since the time of William M. Ramsey, however, it has been recognized that Lycaonia was. part of the province of Galatia, and that the Galatian journey was probably in the district of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium rather than the Northern Galatian cities" Acts 16:1 "Galatia" Named for the Gauls who invaded this region some 300 years previous. "About 300 B.C. great hordes of Gauls left France and Germany and moved toward Asia Minor. After some years they were invited by the king of Bithynia to cross the Hellespont and help him in. war. After the war was over, they refused to go home, and settled instead in the hill country of central Asia Minor. This area in which they settled became known as Galatia" (Reese p. 568). The whole Roman province known as "Galatia" included Pisidia, Lycaonia, part of Phrygia as well as northern Galatian territory. "Having been forbidden" The most logical method of "forbidding" would have been God speaking directly to Paul, giving him instructions not to go into Asia. "The phrase in Asia suggests that the original plan in the mind of Paul had been to penetrate the Roman province of Asia, and evangelize the teeming cities of Colossae and Ephesus. Pisdian Antioch, the centre of the Phrygia region, was also very close to the border of the province of Asia. It was natural, therefore, that the missionaries' eyes should look south-west along the Via Sebaste which led to Colossae (about 150 miles) and then to the coast at Ephesus" (Stott p. 259). The evangelization of Asia will take place on the third journey (Acts 19:1 ff).