ACC ~ Colossians 2 v20 - 23

THE SUBTLE CHALLENGE OF FALSE ASCETICISM. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: It follows that celibacy is not particularly praiseworthy unless it arises through love of God. The blessed Paul says of those who show a distaste for marriage: “In the last times people will abandon the faith, attaching themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demonic powers that they should abstain from food, at the same time forbidding marriage.” Again he says, “Do not let anyone disqualify you in forced piety of self-mortification and severity to the body.” STROMATA 3.5.51.

ORIGEN: To have one’s feet washed by Jesus was expedient in order to have a part with him. But Peter, because he did not understand that this was expedient, first objected, as it were, and said, so as to put himself to shame, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” and a second time, “You shall never wash my feet.” If what he said was a hindrance to the act that would cause him to have a part with the Savior, it is clear that although he said this to the teacher with a sound and reverent intention, he spoke in a way harmful to himself. Now life is full of errors of this kind, of people who intend what they believe to be best but out of ignorance say, or even do, things which take them in the opposite direction. Such indeed are those who declare, “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” concerning everything that is meant for destruction and human consumption, based on some teaching which generally falls far below the divine statement, “You shall die as men.”COMMENTARY ON JOHN 32.57-59.

NOVATIAN: God delights only in our faith, our innocence, our truthfulness, those virtues of ours which dwell in the soul, not the stomach. Fear of God and heavenly awe, not earthly perishable food, obtain these virtues for us. With reason does the apostle rebuke those who are slaves to the superstitions pertaining to angels, “inflated with their fleshly outlook, not clinging to Christ, who is the head, by whom the whole body is fitted together by joints, and fastened together and united by mutual members in the bond of love to reach full growth in the Lord.” They prefer to follow the admonition: “Do not touch nor handle” things that indeed seem to have a show of religion because the body is treated severely. Yet there is in them no increase at all of righteousness in that we are recalled by a self-imposed slavery to the rudiments to which we are dead through baptism. JEWISH FOODS 5.17-18.

CHRYSOSTOM: You are not in the world, Paul says. How is it you are subject to its elements? And note how he pokes fun at them, “touch not, handle not, taste not,” as though they were cowards and keeping themselves clear of some great matters, “all which things are to perish with the using.” … So that even though they appear to be wise, let us turn away from them. For one may seem to be a religious person, and modest, and to have a contempt for the body. … They dishonor the flesh, Paul writes, depriving it and stripping it of its liberty, not allowing them to rule it with their will. But God has honored the flesh. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 7.

SEVERIAN OF GABALA: These prohibitions about eating and drinking that you hear from the Greeks are based on their mistaken conviction that you should not partake of anything living. But all this has been given for consumption and nourishment. So, don’t pay attention to what has been given in accordance with their teaching. PAULINE COMMENTARY IN THE GREEK CHURCH.

THEODORET OF CYR: When these intemperate teachers bring in their own ideas, they do not follow the purpose of the law. Instead, they deceive with spurious words, they call observance of the law humility, they say that one must not transgress that which was given by God and that the body is not to be spared, that, indeed, all things are not to be used freely. This is just plain slavery and the abrogation of an honor given to us. Abstinence must be freely chosen, not because created things are repulsive but precisely because they are pleasing. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

JOHN CASSIAN: This is what the apostle said: “You make observations of the months and of the times and of the years.” Or again: “Do not touch, do not taste, do not pick up.” And there is no doubt that this is said about the superstitions of the law. To plunge into them is to be an adulterer from Christ. CONFERENCES 14.11.

WHEN TO TOLERATE FALSE ASCETICISM. CHRYSOSTOM: To be a virgin it is not enough just to be unmarried. There must be spiritual chastity, and I mean by chastity not only the absence of wicked and shameful desire, the absence of ornaments and superfluous cares, but also being unsoiled by life’s cares. Without that, what good is there in physical purity? … [Those who do not understand this belong] to the very weak who crawl along the earth. It was impossible to uplift souls so disposed all at once to the argument on behalf of virginity. One who has been so excited by worldly things and so admiring of the present life will think … that what is worthy of heaven and close to the angelic state [the call to virginity] is deserving of disgrace. How would such a one tolerate advice promoting this course? And then is it surprising if Paul has adopted the same strategy of argument in the case of something that has been permitted when he does the same thing in the case of what has been forbidden and is contrary to law? For instance: dietary laws, the acceptance of some foods while rejecting others, were a Jewish weakness. Nevertheless, there were among the Romans those who shared this weakness. Paul has not only vehemently denounced them, but he does something more than this. He disregards the wrongdoers and censures those who attempted to prevent them with the words, “But you, how can you sit in judgment on your brother?”Yet he did not do this when he wrote to the Colossians; rather, with great authority he rebukes them and treats the matter philosophically: “No one is free … to pass judgment on you in terms of what you eat or drink.” And again: “If with Christ you have died to cosmic forces, why should you be bound to rules that say, ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ as though you were still living a life bounded by this world? Such prescriptions deal with things that perish in their uses.” Why ever does he do this? Because the Colossians were strong, but the Romans still required much accommodation. ON VIRGINITY 77.2-78.3.

CORRECT PROHIBITIONS MUST BE CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD. TERTULLIAN: When Paul blames those who claim to have had visions of angels, on the basis of which they teach that people are to abstain from meat … he does not mean to criticize the mandates of the Jewish law, as if he had been speaking at the instigation of superstitious angels. His intention, rather, is only to condemn those who do not accept Christ as the One who has true authority over all such things. AGAINST MARCION 5.19.

AMBROSE: Indeed, we are often deceived by sight, and we see things for the most part other than they really are. We are deceived by hearing too. And so, if we do not wish to be deceived, let us contemplate not what is seen but what is unseen. … On this account the apostle also cries out: “Do not touch, nor taste, nor handle, things which must all perish”; for things which are for the body’s indulgence are also for its corruption. DEATH AS A GOOD 3.10.

AMBROSE: With the knowledge of what Paul had seen and heard in paradise, he cried out saying: “Why, as if still viewing the world do you lay down rules: ‘Do not touch; nor handle; nor taste!’—things which must all perish in their very use!” He wished us to be in the world in figure, not in actual possession and use of it. We are to use the world as if we did not use it, as if we were but passing through,not residing in it, walking through as in a dream, not with desire, so that with the speed of thought we might pass through the shadow of this world. LETTERS 79.

AMBROSIASTER: The problem is that the Colossians worship worldly things, put their hope in them, and not in Christ alone … so that these rules have been cut off from the head, who is Christ, and thus have become the basis of a pseudo-religion and a sacrilege. COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

AUGUSTINE: What is so praiseworthy as a show of wisdom, and what so detestable as the superstition of error? Humility, also, both pleasing to God and eminently praiseworthy in true religion, is given with a show of wisdom to those of whose teachings and actions we are told: “Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are unto destruction,” because they are not of God, and “all that is not of faith, is sin.” … I wish to know what this humility is and this show of wisdom which he says is in their superstition, which comes from the doctrines of men. … I think he is speaking of a pretended and useless abstinence such as heretics usually strive after … because they put on the appearance of a holy work, but, as they do not practice it in the fold of truth, they gain neither honor nor the reward of glory. LETTERS 121.2.13.

AUGUSTINE: 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. LETTERS 149.2.23.

PAUL A STRICT TEACHER. AMBROSE: [Some] say that Paul was a teacher of wantonness. Pray, who will be a teacher of sobriety if he taught wantonness, for he chastised his body and brought it to subjectionand by many fasts said that he had rendered the worship which is due to Christ. He did so not to praise himself and his deeds but to teach us what example we must follow. Did he give us instruction in wantonness when he said: ” ‘Do not touch; nor handle; nor taste!’ things that must all perish in their use”? And he also said that we must live “Not in indulgence of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying and love of the flesh, not in the lusts of error; but in the Spirit by whom we are renewed.” LETTERS 44.