Colossians 2:21

(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Touch	ἅπτομαι háptomai	G680	properly
not	μὴ mē	G3361	(adverb) not · particle — negative
taste	γεύσῃ geusē	G1089	to taste · verb — aorist middle deponent subjunctive, 2nd person singular
not	μηδὲ mēde	G3366	but not · conjunction — negative
handle	θίγῃς· thigēs	G2345	to manipulate · verb — second aorist active subjunctive, 2nd person singular
not	μηδὲ mēde	G3366	but not · conjunction — negative

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

1 Timothy 4:3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and…
Isaiah 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of th…
Genesis 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye…
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:16–end

The apostle concludes the chapter with exhortations to proper duty, which he infers from the foregoing discourse. I. Here is a caution to take heed of judaizing teachers, or those who would impose upon Christians the yoke of the ceremonial law: Let no man therefore judge you in meat nor drink, etc., Col 2:16. Much of the ceremonies of the law of Moses consisted in the distinction of meats and days. It appears by Rom. 14 that there were those who were for keeping up those distinctions: but here the apostle shows that since Christ has come, and has cancelled the ceremonial law, we ought not to keep it up. "Let no man impose those things upon you, for God has not imposed them: if God has made y…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:21

Compare Col 2:16, "meat . . . drink." He gives instances of the "ordinances" (Col 2:20) in the words of their imposers. There is an ascending climax of superstitious prohibitions. The first Greek word (hapse) is distinguished from the third (thiges), in that the former means close contact and retention: the latter, momentary contact (compare Co1 7:1; Joh 20:17, Greek, "Hold me not"; cling not to me"). Translate, "Handle not, neither taste, nor even touch." The three refer to meats. "Handle not" (a stronger term than "nor even touch"), "nor taste" with the tongue, "nor even touch," however slight the contact.

Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:21

Touch not; taste not; handle not - These are forms of expression very frequent among the Jews. In Maccoth, fol. xxi. 1: "If they say to a Nazarite, Don't drink, don't drink; and he, notwithstanding, drinks; he is guilty. If they say, Don't shave, don't shave; and he shaves, notwithstanding; he is guilty. If they say, Don't put on these clothes, don't put on these clothes; and he, notwithstanding, puts on heterogeneous garments; he is guilty." See more in Schoettgen.

John Gill on Colossians 2:21

Touch not, taste not, handle not. This the apostle says, not of himself, but in the person of the Jewish doctors; who urging the use of the ceremonial law, to which they added decrees and constitutions of their own, said, "touch not" the dead body of any man, the bone of a man, or a grave, any man or woman in their uncleanness; not only their flesh, but the bed they lay on, or the seat they sat on; or any creature that was by the law unclean; of a Gentile, or any notorious sinner, or common man: hence the Pharisees used to wash themselves when they returned from market, lest they should have been by any means accidentally defiled by touching any thing unclean. There is a treatise in their Mi…

The Church Fathers

"Handle not, nor taste, nor touch; all which things are to perish with the using; after the precepts and doctrines of men." Ye are not in the world, he saith, how is it ye are subject to its elements? how to its observances? And mark how he makes sport of them, "touch not, handle not, taste not," as though they were cowards and keeping themselves clear of some great matters, "all which things are to perish with the using." He has taken down the swollenness of the many, and added, "after the precepts and doctrines of men." What sayest thou? Dost thou speak even of the Law? Henceforth it is but a doctrine of men, after the time is come. Or, because they adulterated it, or else, he alludes to the Gentile institutions. The doctrine, he says, is altogether of man.
— John Chrysostom, Homily on Colossians 7

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Philosophy — It is the object of the following article to give some account (I.) of that development of thought among the Jews which answered to the philosophy of the West; (II.) of the systematic progress of…
Asceticism · .Rebuked by Paul — .Rebuked by Paul
Commandments · PRECEPTS OF PAUL. EXPLICITLY STATED OR IMPLIED IN DIDACTIC EPISTLES — PRECEPTS OF PAUL. EXPLICITLY STATED OR IMPLIED IN DIDACTIC EPISTLES
Defilement · Ceremonial, abolished under the gospel — Ceremonial, abolished under the gospel
Doctrines · FALSE — FALSE
Ordinance · INSUFFICIENCY OF, FOR SALVATION — INSUFFICIENCY OF, FOR SALVATION

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Colossians 2:21

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:16–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:21

Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:21

John Gill on Colossians 2:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Colossians 2:21

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Colossians 2:16–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Colossians 2:21

Adam Clarke on Colossians 2:21

John Gill on Colossians 2:21

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Colossians 2:20–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Colossians 2:20