Colossians 2:21

(touch not; taste not; handle not; Better (discarding the brackethere), Handle thou not, nor taste, nor touch. This rendering represents exactly the construction of the Greek, and is truer to the shades of meaning of the first and last of the three Greek verbs. The last verb denotes a lighter and less deliberate touch than the first, and so here conveys a climaxof prohibition.

The prohibitions in question would be those of the Mosaic law, developed and exaggerated by the Pharisaic schools. Schoettgen (Horœ Hebr. in N. T.) quotes from the Talmud just such precepts: "Touch not a vessel, till thou hast washed hands and feet from(its) brim;" "They say to a Nazirite, Drink not … shave not… &c." "The Latin commentators, Hilary and Pelagius, suppose these prohibitions to be the Apostle's own, thus making a complete shipwreck of the sense" (Lightfoot). In much more modern comments the same mistake appears.

Our Lord's teaching (e.g. Matthew 15:1-20) takes the exactly opposite direction to this system of prohibitions, and is a lasting warning to His Church on all kindred subjects. Cp. also 1 Corinthians 8; 1 Timothy 4:3.