📖 Biblical Definition
Plain sense is the natural, direct meaning of a biblical text — what an ordinary reader, attending to grammar, context, and genre, would understand. The Reformers championed plain-sense reading against medieval allegorizing that loaded texts with hidden moral and mystical meanings on top of the literal. "The grammatical sense alone is the true and proper sense" (Luther). Plain-sense reading includes figurative speech read figuratively, narrative read as narrative, poetry as poetry, parable as parable — not flat-footed literalism, but ordinary intelligent reading honoring what the author intended his words to mean. Tyndale: "the literal sense is the root and ground of all, and the anchor that never faileth, whereunto if thou cleave thou canst never err."
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Hermeneutical term.) The natural, direct meaning a normal reader would understand.
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Reformation principle: the plain sense, not hidden allegorical layers, is the foundation of biblical interpretation. Calvin's commentaries are exemplary; he repeatedly chooses the plain reading over patristic allegorizing.
Plain sense is not the only sense (typology and christological reading have apostolic warrant) but is the foundation. Without it, interpretation floats free.
📖 Key Scripture
Deuteronomy 30:11 — "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off."
Deuteronomy 30:14 — "But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."
Psalm 119:130 — "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
2 Corinthians 1:13 — "For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity sometimes overcomplicates Scripture or undercomplicates it; plain sense splits the difference: ordinary intelligent reading.
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Psalm 119:130 says the entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Scripture is not coded for elites. Plain readers, with attention, can grasp its plain meaning.
But plain does not mean simplistic. Christ's parables are plain in the sense that ordinary readers can grasp them, but reward attention. The household's Bible reading should expect this combination: accessible to plain readers, rewarding to careful ones.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
English compound; Reformation principle.
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Latin planus — flat, plain, level; behind English plain.
Note: in Jewish hermeneutics, peshat (plain meaning) is one of the four senses (with remez, derash, sod).
Usage
"Scripture is not coded for elites."
"Plain does not mean simplistic."
"Accessible to plain readers, rewarding to careful ones."