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5. λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες. Returning to στρατευόμεθα (2Co 10:3), or perhaps an anacoluthon from τὰ ὅπλα, like πλουτιζόμενοι (2Co 9:11): seeing that we cast down imaginations (Rom 2:15 only), i.e. ‘reasonings, counsels’ (consilia, Vulg.); ‘we bring to nought workings of the intellect apart from God.’ Comp. ἵνα καταισχύνῃ τοὺς σοφούς … τὰ ἰσχυρά … ἵνα τὰ ὄντα καταργήσῃ (1Co 1:27-28). It is doubtful whether λογισμούς looks back to λογιζομένους.
πᾶν ὕψωμα ἐπαιρόμενον. Every high thing that is lifting itself up; or better, that is being lifted up. If ἐπαιρόμενον is passive, it makes a better antithesis to καθαιροῦντες; and ‘exalt’ is wanted for ὑψόω (2Co 11:7; Mat 11:23; Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14; &c). Comp. δύο δὲ νῆες ἐπαιρόμεναι τῇ νίκῃ (Thuc. VII. xli. 3). In 2Co 11:20 ἐπαίρεται is no doubt middle. Comp. Rom 8:30, where οὔτε ὕψωμα οὔτε βάθος is to separate us from the love of God; and Job 24:24. Apparently πᾶν ὕψωμα is the genus of which λογισμοί are species.
τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ. A periphrasis for the Gospel and all other means of knowing God (Rom 1:19). Comp. πλανᾶσθαι περὶ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ γνῶσιν (Wis 14:22). S. Paul knew the Book of Wisdom: see on 2Co 5:1.
αἰχμαλωτίζοντες. In the N.T., S. Paul alone uses this metaphor (Rom 7:23; 2Ti 3:6). In Luk 21:24 the verb is used literally.
πᾶν νόημα. Every device, or design: see on 2Co 2:11. Like λογισμοί, it refers to all workings of the natural reason which hinder or corrupt the Gospel. Luther’s rendering, alle Vernunft, has led some to suppose that the Apostle here disallows ‘thinking for oneself,’ and support was thus found for the doctrine fides praecedit intellectum (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 73).
εἰς τήν ὑπακοὴν τοῦ χριστοῦ Obedience to the Christ is thought of as the new condition into which they are changed,—from antagonism to loyalty (Col 1:13). Comp. Luk 21:24; Tob 1:10; Jdt 5:18; 1Ki 8:46. Certainly εἰς does not belong to πᾶν νόημα in the sense of ‘against’; ‘every design against obedience to the Christ.’ To express this S. Paul would again have used κατά, as in κατὰ τῆς γνώσεως.
Stanley suggests that this imagery may in part be suggested by the wars of Pompey against Mithridates and the Pirates. The latter “had been raging amongst the hill forts of the Cilician pirates not more than sixty years before the Apostle’s birth, in the very scene of his earlier years, and was ended by the reduction of 120 strongholds, and the capture of more than 10,000 prisoners.” See Appian, Bell. Mith. XII. xiv. 96.