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Colossians 2 · a question people ask

“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch” (2:21). Whose words are these?

In the text

The letter doesn't say. It asks, "why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances" (2:20), quotes them (2:21), and goes on, "(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?" (2:22). It names no one who gave them, and these notes don't either. They say nothing of what practice they were, and apply them to no food, fast, diet, rule, church or person today.

The verses

“If you died with Christ from the elemental spirits of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances, “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch” (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?”
Colossians 2:20-22 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Colossians 2

Colossians 2: Rooted in him

Colossians 2 says knit together twice, one Greek verb both times: of those "knit together in love" (2:2), and of "all the body", which from the Head "grows with God’s growth" (2:19). Between them comes "walk in him, rooted and built up in him" (2:6-7).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions