Therefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
All Commentaries on Colossians 2:20 Go To Colossians 2
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
As to the words “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” they are not to be considered as a commandment of the apostle forbidding us to touch, taste or handle something or other. It is just the opposite, if I am not deluded by the obscurity of the passage. Surely he used these words in mockery of those by whom he did not want his followers to be deceived and led astray. They were the ones who made a distinction of foods according to the worship of angels and issued decrees for this life, saying: “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” although “all things are clean to the clean.” “For every creature of God is good,” as he assures us in another place. .
