Colossians 2:8

Paul is not condemning philosophy properly so called, but the empty doctrines which the false teachers dignified by that name. Spoil] RV 'maketh spoil of you'; the word means to lead away as prey. The rudiments of the world] better, as mg., 'the elements of the world.' This cannot be the first principles of religion, which could not be well called 'weak and beggarly' (Galatians 4:9), were not strictly common to Jews and heathen, nor an apt description of the false teaching which was something very different. Here they are contrasted with Christ; in Galatians 4:8 they are identified with those who by nature are not gods; and in Galatians 4:8 compared with 'guardians and stewards.' They must then be personal beings, not however the spirits of the stars, but the elemental spirits that animate the material world. The false 'philosophy' had these angels not Christ for its subject-matter.