Hermēneia is the act of interpretation or translation — making one language or form of communication intelligible to another audience. It appears in 1 Corinthians 12:10 in the list of spiritual gifts ('to another, interpretation [hermēneia] of tongues') and in 1 Corinthians 14:26 where Paul instructs that each tongue-speaker should have an interpreter. The word is related to Hermes, the Greek messenger god, whose name became associated with interpretation and communication.
The gift of hermēneia in 1 Corinthians 12-14 illustrates the communal purpose of all spiritual gifts: tongues without interpretation is incomplete — it edifies the speaker but not the assembly (1 Cor 14:4). The interpreter bridges the gap between private spiritual experience and communal understanding. This gift-pair (tongues + interpretation) models the whole Christian vocation: translating divine communication into forms that can be heard and received by others. Paul insists that intelligibility is a measure of love: 'I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue' (1 Cor 14:19).