φιλοσοφία, φιλοσοφίας, ἡ (from φιλόσοφος), properly, love (and pursuit) of wisdom; used in the Greek writings of either zeal for or skill in any art or science, any branch of knowledge, see Passow, under the word (cf. Liddell and Scott, under the word). Once in the N. T. of the theology, or rather theosophy, of certain Jewish-Christian ascetics, which busied itself with refined and speculative inquiries into the nature and classes of angels, into the ritual of the Mosaic law and the regulations of Jewish tradition respecting practical life: Col 2:8; see Grimm on 4Ma 1:1, p. 298f; (Lightfoot on Colossians, the passage cited, and Prof. Westcott in B. D., under the word Philosophy).