Bible Strands
Colossians 2:21
“Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Colossian believers, contrasting their union with Christ against their ongoing submission to external religious regulations.
The words — The Greek sequence μὴ ἅψῃ, μηδὲ γεύσῃ, μηδὲ θίγῃς literally commands “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” using three negative prohibitions to ban physical interaction with specific items.
The thread — This phrasing mirrors the boundary set in Genesis 3:3, the ritual separation order in Isaiah 52:11, and the ascetic food restrictions condemned in 1 Timothy 4:3.
Why it lands — The text explicitly rejects human commands that demand physical abstinence, requiring readers to recognize that such rules only regulate perishable matter and hold no power over spiritual life.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
(Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Cross-references
- 1 Timothy 4:3 They 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.
- Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Genesis 3:3 but 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 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”