Colossians 2:21

New Life Version

These rules say, "You must not put your hand on this." "Do not put this into your mouth." "You must not put your finger on that."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”?

King James Version (1611)
(Touch not, taste not, handle not:

King James Version
(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

English Standard Version
"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"

New American Standard Bible
"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"

New Century Version
"Don't handle this," "Don't taste that," "Don't even touch that thing"?

Legacy Standard Bible
"Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch"?

Berean Standard Bible
"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"?

Contemporary English Version
"Don't handle this. Don't taste that. Don't touch this."?

Complete Jewish Bible
"Don't touch this!" "Don't eat that!" "Don't handle the other!"

Darby Translation
Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,

Easy-to-Read Version
"Don't eat this," "Don't taste that," "Don't touch that"?

Geneva Bible (1587)
As, Touch not, Taste not, Handle not.

George Lamsa Translation
Do not touch; do not taste; do not follow;

Good News Translation
"Don't handle this," "Don't taste that," "Don't touch the other"?

Lexham English Bible
"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,"

Literal Translation
Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,

Amplified Bible
"Do not handle [this], do not taste [that], do not [even] touch!"?

American Standard Version
Handle not, nor taste, nor touch

Bible in Basic English
Which say there may be no touching, tasting, or taking in your hands,

Hebrew Names Version
"Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch"

International Standard Version
"Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!"1 Timothy 4:3;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
you are not to touch, nor to taste, nor to handle?

Murdock Translation
But, touch thou not, and taste thou not, and handle thou not:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Touche not, taste not, handle not?

English Revised Version
Handle not, nor taste, nor touch

World English Bible
"Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch"

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
(Touch not, taste not, handle not:

Weymouth's New Testament
"Do not handle this;" "Do not taste that;" "Do not touch that other thing" --

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
That ye touche not, nether taaste,

Update Bible Version
Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch

Webster's Bible Translation
(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

New English Translation
"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"

New King James Version
"Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,"

New Living Translation
"Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!"?

New Revised Standard
"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch; -

Douay-Rheims Bible
Touch not: taste not: handle not.

Revised Standard Version
"Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch"

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Touche not tast not handell not:

Young's Literal Translation
-- thou mayest not touch, nor taste, nor handle --

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Touch not this, taist not that, handle not that.

Mace New Testament (1729)
"don't eat this, don't taste that, nor touch it:"

Simplified Cowboy Version
They tell you, "Don't pick up that. Don't taste this. Stay away from this or that."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"

Contextual Overview

¹⁶ Do not let anyone tell you what you should or should not eat or drink. They have no right to say if it is right or wrong to eat certain foods or if you are to go to religious suppers. They have no right to say what you are to do at the time of the new moon or on the Day of Rest. ¹⁷ These things are a picture of what is coming. The important thing is Christ Himself. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone rob you of your crown. They will try to get you to bow down in worship of angels. They think this shows you are not proud. They say they were told to do this in a dream. These people are proud because of their sinful minds. ¹⁹ Such people are not a part of Christ. Christ is the Head. We Christians make up His body. We are joined together as a body is held together. Our strength to grow comes from Christ. ²⁰ You have died with Christ and become dead to those old ways. Then why do you follow the old ways of worship? Why do you obey man-made rules? ²¹ These rules say, "You must not put your hand on this." "Do not put this into your mouth." "You must not put your finger on that." ²² All these things come to an end when they are used. You are following only man-made rules. ²³ It looks as if it is wise to follow these rules in an act of worship, because they are hard on the body. It looks as if they are done without pride, but they are worth nothing. They do not take away a man's desire to sin.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Genesis 3:3, Isaiah 52:11, 2 Corinthians 6:17, 1 Timothy 4:3

Reciprocal: Genesis 9:3 - even Leviticus 11:8 - they are unclean Matthew 15:17 - that Mark 7:3 - the tradition Mark 7:19 - General 1 Timothy 4:8 - bodily

Cross-References

Genesis 15:12
When the sun was going down, Abram went into a sleep as if he were dead. And much fear and darkness came upon him.

1 Samuel 26:12
So David took the spear and the bottle of water from beside Saul's head, and they went away. But no one saw it, or knew it, and no one woke, for they were all sleeping. A deep sleep from the Lord had come upon them.

Job 4:13
With troubled thoughts from the dreams of the night, when deep sleep comes upon men,

Job 33:15
In a dream, a special dream of the night, when deep sleep comes upon men, while they sleep in their beds,

Proverbs 19:15
Being lazy makes one go into a deep sleep, and a lazy man will suffer from being hungry.

Daniel 8:18
While he was talking to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. But he touched me and made me stand up.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 Misna, called Oholot, which gives many rules, and is full of decrees about things במגע

מטמאים, "that defile by touching". And so they likewise said, "taste not", neither the fat, nor the blood of any creature which might be eaten itself, nor swine's flesh, nor the flesh of any creature that chewed the cud, or divided the hoof; nor might the Nazarites taste wine, or strong drink, or vinegar made of either, or moist grapes, or even the kernels and husks; and if a man ate but the quantity of an olive of any of the above things, he was, according to the Jewish canons, to be cut off, or beaten x: and they also said, "handle not"; or, as the Syriac and Arabic read, "do not come near", or "draw not nigh", to a Gentile, to one of another nation, or any unclean person, to whom they forbid any near approach or conversation; or "handle not" any of the above things. Some think that these several rules have respect only to meats; as "touch not", that is, do not eat of things forbidden ever so little; nay, "taste not", do not let anything of them come within your lips; yea, "handle not", do not so much as touch them with your fingers. Others think that touch not regards abstinence from women; see 1 Corinthians 7:1; and respects the prohibition of marriage by some in those times; and "taste not", the forbearance of certain meats, at certain times, which God had not restrained any from; and "handle not", that is, make no use of, or enjoy your own goods, and so designs that voluntary poverty which some entered into under the direction of false teachers.

x Maimon. Maacolot Asurot, c. 7. sect. 1. & c. 14. sect. 2. & Nezirut, c. 5. sect. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Tough not; taste not; handle not - These words seem intended as a specimen of the kind of ordinances which the apostle refers to, or an imitation of the language of the Jewish teachers in regard to various kinds of food and drink. “Why are ye subject to ordinances of various kinds, such as this - Touch not, taste not, handle not?” That is, such as prohibit you from even touching certain kinds of food, or tasting certain kinds of drink, or handling certain prohibited things. The rapid succession of the words here, without any connecting particle, is supposed to denote the eagerness of the persons who imposed this injunction, and their earnestness in warning others from contaminating themselves with the prohibited things. Many injunctions of this kind are found in the writings of the Jewish rabbis; and the ancient Jewish sect of the Essenes (Notes, Matthew 3:7) abounded in precepts of this kind.

See Schoetgen, and Pict. Bib. in loc. “They allowed themselves no food that was pleasant to the taste, but ate dry, coarse bread, and drank only water. Many of them ate nothing until sunset, and, if anyone touched them who did not belong to their sect, they washed themselves as if they had been most deeply defiled. Perhaps there was at Colossae a society of this kind, as there were in many other places out of Judea; and, if there was, it is not improbable that many Christians imitated them in the uniqueness of their rules and observances;” compare Jenning’s Jew. Ant. i. 471, and Ros. Alt. u. neu. Morgenland, in loc. If this be the correct interpretation, then these are not the words of the apostle, forbidding Christians to have anything to do with these ordinances, but are introduced as a specimen of the manner in which they who enjoined the observance of those ordinances pressed the subject on others.

There were certain things which they prohibited, in conformity with what they understood to be the law of Moses; and they were constantly saying, in regard to them, “do not touch them, taste them, handle them.” These words are often used as a kind of motto in reference to the use of intoxicating drinks. They express very well what is held by the friends of total abstinence; but it is obvious that they had no such reference as used by the apostle, nor should they be alleged as an authority, or as an argument, in the question about the propriety or impropriety of the use of spirituous liquors. They may as well be employed in reference to anything else as that, and would have no authority in either case. Intoxicating drinks should be abstained from; but the obligation to do it should be made to rest on solid arguments, and not on passages of Scripture like this. This passage could with more plausibility be pressed into the service of the enemies of the total abstinence societies, than into their support; but it really has nothing to do with the subject, one way or the other.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.