John Calvin Commentary Colossians 2:21

"Handle not, nor taste, nor touch" — Colossians 2:21 (ASV)

Eat not, taste not. Until now this has been rendered—Handle not; but as another word immediately follows which signifies the same thing, everyone sees how cold and absurd such a repetition was. Furthermore, the verb ἅπτεσθαι is used by the Greeks, among its other meanings, in the sense of eating, in accordance with the rendering that I have given.

Plutarch uses it in his life of Caesar, when he relates that his soldiers, in utter destitution, ate animals they had not previously been accustomed to use as food. This arrangement is natural in other respects and also aligns best with the passage's context, for Paul points out, (μιμητικῶς), by way of imitation, to what lengths the waywardness of those who bind consciences with their laws tends to proceed.

From the very beginning, they are unduly rigorous; therefore, he sets out with their prohibition—not simply against eating, but even against slightly partaking. After they have obtained what they desire, they go beyond that command, so that they afterward declare it unlawful to taste anything they do not wish to be eaten. Eventually, they make it criminal even to touch.

In short, when people have once taken it upon themselves to tyrannize over human souls, there is no end to new laws being daily added to old ones, and new enactments emerging from time to time. What a clear reflection of this is found in Popery!

Therefore, Paul acts admirably well in warning us that human traditions are a labyrinth in which consciences become more and more entangled. Indeed, they are snares that from the beginning bind in such a way that, in time, they ultimately strangle.