📖 Biblical Definition
Intelligible means capable of being understood — not by the senses only but by the mind. It is one of the most theologically loaded adjectives the saint can apply to God's revelation: Scripture is intelligible, the gospel is intelligible, the LORD's commandments are intelligible. The Spirit is given that the things of God may be intelligible to the reborn mind that, before, called them foolishness.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Capable of being understood; clear; perspicuous; meeting the understanding.
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INTELLIGIBLE, adj. That may be understood; capable of being apprehended by the mind; clear; perspicuous; that may be conceived in the understanding.
Webster's definition is straightforward; the theological loading is enormous. If God's revelation were not intelligible, the saint could not obey, learn, or preach it. Scripture insists it is intelligible — not exhaustively, but truly.
📖 Key Scripture
Romans 1:20 — "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead."
Deuteronomy 30:11 — "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off."
1 Corinthians 14:9 — "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?"
1 Corinthians 2:14 — "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Postmodern thought treats all meaning as unstable; Christianity insists God speaks, His speech is intelligible, and the saint may know Him truly though not exhaustively.
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Romans 1:20 settles a basic claim: the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood. The created order is itself an intelligible witness; God did not arrange a cosmos that requires guessing. Atheism, in Romans's argument, is therefore not a failure of evidence but a refusal of evidence understood.
1 Corinthians 2:14 adds the Spirit-side: spiritual things are not intelligible to the natural man. The Spirit must illuminate. The household's teaching of children, the missionary's preaching, the elder's sermon all assume this dual reality: the message is intelligible by nature, but the hearer requires the Spirit's opening before the intelligibility lands.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Latin intelligere and Greek noēta (intelligible things, from nous, mind).
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Latin intelligere — to understand; inter (between) plus legere (to choose, gather).
Greek noēta — intelligible things, perceived by mind; from nous, mind, intellect.
Usage
"God's revelation is intelligible; refusal is not ignorance."
"The Spirit must open what is by nature intelligible."
"The saint may know truly, though not exhaustively."