Speculations (3053) (logismos from logizomai [word study] = process of careful study or reasoning and arriving at a conclusion) represents the product of cognition and thus means consideration, reasonings, reflections, calculations. The Greeks used logismos to describe the consideration and thought which preceded and determined one's conduct.
In the present context logismos speaks of reasonings (sophistries) that are contrary to or hostile to the truth of God.
Logismos is used 2 times in the NT here and Romans 2:15
(For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,) 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts (logismos) alternately accusing or else defending them -- Note: here the logismos or thoughts are personified as both a prosecution attorney and a defense attorney!
Logismos - 25x in the Septuagint (LXX) - Esther 1:1; Ps. 33:10, 11; 18" class="scriptRef">Pr 6:18; 12:5; 15:22, 26; 19:21; Eccl. 7:27, 29; 9:10; Is 66:18; Je 11:19; 18:11, 18; 29:11; 49:20, 30; 50:45; 51:29; Ezek 38:10; Da 11:24, 25; Mic. 4:12; Nah 1:11.
Webster's 1828 Dictionary (resource) says speculation is a mental view of any thing in its various aspects and relations; contemplation; intellectual examination. It is a train of thoughts formed by meditation (Ex: From him Socrates derived the principles of morality and most part of his natural speculations.) Mental scheme; theory; views of a subject not verified by fact or practice. This globe, which was formerly round only in speculation, has been circumnavigated. The application of steam to navigation is no longer a matter of mere speculation. (Ex: Speculations which originate in guilt, must end in ruin. -- R. Hall).
Morris has this note regarding speculations
The spiritual panoply of weapons ordained by God may not appear impressive outwardly to a humanistically oriented society, but it is only these that can pull down the strong holds of Satan in this world, casting down the humanistic “reasonings” (literal meaning of “imaginations”) of the leaders of this world’s educational and political systems. Otherwise the enemy will “spoil” us—that is, defeat us and despoil us of the carnal weapons we have tried to use (Col 2:8-note). (Morris, Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)
In short, speculations as used in this verse refer to suppositions, theories, or opinions arrived at through speculating or conjecturing without knowing the complete facts or having firm evidence, especially the firm footing of being Scripturally sound.
Phil Newton notes that speculations refers...
to the calculating, reasoning, and reflecting thoughts of the mind at enmity with God. We get our English term, logical, from this same Greek root word. Man uses his logic against God's truth. The gospel remains a mystery to him, even foolishness that demands his opposition, or so he thinks. So he calculates the ways that he can dismantle this teaching about God as sovereign Lord, man as a hopeless sinner, and Jesus Christ as the only Savior of men. He tries to throw off any considerations of personal sin and responsibility by blaming others for his own sin problems. He boasts of his own entitlement and rights to every benefit in life. He blames the government or the schools or the churches or the workplace or even his own family for his problems. He's not to blame - everyone else is - even God! 'And besides, this God cannot be all that He proposes to be since everyone knows that He had nothing to do with creation. The world came about due to a gaseous explosion billions of years ago. Man evolved over time, as did everything else. One God had nothing to do with it. Men have been culturally acclimated to having gods in their lives. But it is sheer scientific ignorance to believe in an eternally existent God who created the world and who continues to govern it and who dares to call for my repentance, faith, and absolute allegiance!' He reasons and reflects to his own satisfaction that this God that Christians talk about is really only superstitious nonsense.
Or such speculations may run another course - a seemingly Christian one. Here a person adopts a general framework of Christianity. He calls himself a Christian though he sees no need for a personal Savior or need for repentance or even the admission of his own sinfulness. He's a Christian. He was born into a Christian family and a Christian land. He was even baptized as a Christian; so he is a Christian regardless of what all of the 'Holy Joe Christians' say. He does not need to believe in the Bible's inerrancy. Why, it is just an old book that everyone knows is full of errors and myths and mere traditions that have been handed down for centuries. He knows that Christ died only to be an example of self-sacrifice and service to others; no atonement was needed, no propitiatory sacrifice was necessary. How dare someone not call him a Christian just because he does not agree with the so-called evangelical teaching of the gospel!
How are these kinds of speculations destroyed or torn down?
Paul tells us that we do not do it with human weapons or with the strength of the flesh or with the power of our own mental reasonings. These are spiritual strongholds and only spiritual means can tear them down. "Hence it is that the Christian warfare is aimed at the casting down of reasonings," wrote Philip Hughes, "which are the strongholds whereby the unbelieving mind seeks to fortify itself against the truths of human depravity and divine grace, and at the casting down also of every proud bulwark raised high against the knowledge of God." He goes on to explain, "This metaphor emphasizes the defiant and mutinous nature of sin: sinful man does not wish to know God; he wishes himself to be the self-sufficient center of his universe" [352]. Modern men have erected their own Tower of Babel by which they seek to usurp God's rule over their lives [Bruce 230]. So that calls for the right weapons of holy lives, God's truth, faith's promises, and God-dependent prayer, wielded in the power of the Holy Spirit. (Sermons from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians) (Bolding added)
Recall that in the context every lofty thing was directed against the gospel, Jamieson writing that...
Such were the high towers of Judaic self-righteousness, philosophic speculations, and rhetorical sophistries, the "knowledge" so much prized by many (opposed to "the knowledge of God"), which endangered a section of the Corinthian Church. (2Corinthians 10)
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Greek Word Studies ( - )
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