2 Peter 1:19-21
What is written? (ESV)
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
What does it say?
We have the prophetic word that is more sure which you should pay close attention to as it is a lamp that shines in the dark. It shines until that day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts/minds. You know of first importance that no prophecy of Scripture came from one’s own interpretation, but rather the men were moved by the Holy Spirit to share what was from God.
What is its immediate context?
Peter is warning all Christians about false teachers and goes on to compare them to false prophets. His overarching message is encouragement to hold fast to his and the apostles’ teaching as they “were eyewitnesses” (vs 16) of Jesus Christ. In addition to their eyewitness testimony, he is suggesting they pay attention to the prophecies that serve as confirmation of their faith, and he continues in the next few verses to warn about “false words” from “false teachers” (2:1-3).
How 2 Peter 1:19-21 is applied across Bible answers
Can we interpret Bible prophecy?
Peter's main point is that the words of Scripture are from God, not from the person who might be writing them (e.g. Isaiah, Moses, David, etc.). However, there's also an implication here, or maybe it's by extension, that no Scriptural prophecy is interpreted by man since no [true] prophecy is given by man. Prophecy is from God [His words], and therefore God's alone to interpret.
Interestingly, Peter tells us this while citing two familiar prophetic images - their meanings we need not speculate about since we have an inspired [God] interpretation - "a lamp shining" (Luke 1:76-79) and "the morning star" (Revelation 22:16).
Who said scripture interprets scripture?
The words of Scripture are God's words and were not "filtered" or given their own meaning by those who were "carried along" to write them.
