2 Peter 1:20
“knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation.”
What does 2 Peter 1:20 mean?
Peter is telling us that Bible prophecies aren't just one person's private opinion or personal spin on what God meant. When someone claims "this prophecy means whatever I personally think it means," that's the opposite of what Peter is saying. Instead, prophecies came from God working through prophets in real community and real history, and they're meant to be understood in that fuller context. This protects us from wild misreadings and reminds us that Scripture was given for a community of believers to understand together, not for isolated individuals to invent meanings out of thin air. It's a gentle guardrail that says: check your interpretations against what the broader tradition of faith has understood, and stay humble about claiming you alone have figured out what a prophecy "really" means.