2 Peter 1:20

2 Peter 1:20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture comes of private interpretation. This sentence states a fact which is to be recognised in the heed which should be given to the prophetic word, or a reason why such heed should be given earnestly. It is by no means easy, however, to determine what that fact or reason is. The verse has been largely taken advantage of by Roman Catholic divines in the interest of their theory of the relation in which Scripture stands to the Church. It has been regarded as a protest against the right of private judgment. Some Protestant commentators read it as a caution against interpreting particular prophecies separately by themselves, instead of interpreting them in the full light of prophecy as a whole. Others discover in it a re-statement of what Peter has already said in the former Epistle (chap. 2 Peter 1:11-12) about the inability of the prophets to understand all that was in the prophecies which they uttered. Others suppose it to mean that prophecy is not its own interpreter, but can be fully understood only in the light of the event. Not a few (including Luther, Erasmus, Besser, Schott, Hofmann, etc.) take it, in one way or other, to be an assertion of the fact that the renders of prophecy are not able of their own understanding to interpret it, but are dependent for its interpretation upon the Holy Spirit. It cannot be said, however, that any one of these views falls in naturally with the context. Another must be sought more in harmony with the train of thought. The terms themselves, at the same time, are for the most part sufficiently plain, and the following verse makes the ruling idea in the writer's mind equally clear. The phrase' prophecy of Scripture' means a prophecy belonging to Scripture, or as Dean Plumptre puts it, a prophecy ‘authenticated as such by being recognised as part of Scripture.' The ‘is' of the A. V. and the R. V. does not quite fairly represent the original, which means rather arises, comes into existence, or originates. The interpretation turns upon the sense of the adjective ‘private,' which may mean either ‘special' (as in the margin of the R. V.), or ‘one's own;' and still more upon the sense of the noun rendered ‘interpretation.' This noun is found only this once in the N. T. It is used, however, by one of the ancient Greek Versions of the O. T. in the sense of the ‘interpretation' or reading of a dream (Genesis 40:8). The cognate verb, too, occurs in Mark 4:34 (where the A. V. renders it ‘expounded'), and in Acts 19:39 (where it is translated ‘determined'). The verse, therefore, seems to mean that prophecy does not originate in the prophets own private interpretation of things that it is not the mere expression of his own reading of the future. This explanation (which Bengel suggested, and Huther, Alford, etc., have followed) connects the verse easily and clearly both with what precedes and with what follows. The fact that prophecy is something so different from man's own view of events or forecastings of the future is to be known ‘first,' that is, it is to be recognised as a fact of primary importance. It is a reason why we should give that earnest heed to it which was enjoined in the previous verse. And in what sense prophecy is something more than the expression of the prophet's own ideas or prognostications, is stated in the next verse.