“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
- KJV (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
- NKJV “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
- NASB “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”
- NLT “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He quotes the kind of human rules being imposed: 'Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch.' These ascetic prohibitions are examples of empty regulation.
Overview
Paul cites the slogans of the false teaching—'Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch'—a string of negative taboos. Such rules pile up restrictions in the name of holiness. The next verses expose their futility: they concern perishable things and rest on mere human authority.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- 1 Tim 4:3They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
- Isa 52:11Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Gen 3:3but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’”
- 2 Cor 6:17“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The image of the invisible God, firstborn over creation, in whom all things hold together and all the fullness of God dwells bodily — supreme over every power.
How Colossians 2:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.