No reputable source describing Philip's death has been found. However second-century Christians sought to portray all the apostles as incredibly brave men who sufferred great hardships and martyrdom for their faith.

One of two main Christian traditions, taken from the Acts of Phillip, is that Phillip was crucified because he converted the wife of the proconsul of the city of Hierapolis. To make the crucifixion seem more special, it seems that he and Bartholomew was crucified upside down. Even in that position, Phillip continued to preach to the crowd that had assembled. Not only is Acts of Phillip anonymous and non-canonical, this story only appears in its appendix, suggesting quite late authorship.

Another Christian tradition is that Phillip was martyred by beheading.

We have no good reason to believe that any of the apostles was crucified. However, by the second century, various imaginative Christian traditions had begun to emerge about the supposedly gruesome deaths that each of the apostles suffered. All the apostles had to be portrayed as incredibly brave men who suffered great hardships and martyrdom for their faith.

One of two main Christian traditions about the supposed death of the apostle Phillip has been taken from the Acts of Phillip.In this anonymous and non-canonical work, Phillip was crucified because he converted the wife of the proconsul of the city of Hierapolis. To make the crucifixion seem more special, it seems that he and Bartholomew were crucified upside down. Even in that position, Phillip continued to preach to the crowd that had assembled. This story only appears in the appendix of Acts of Phillip, suggesting it was written after the book was first published. Apart from the apparently fictional story in Acts of Phillip, no reputable source describing Phillip's death has been found, and many theologians discount the crucifixion story.