2 Peter 1:20-21
The context
The letter is framed as a farewell, and the author has just appealed to his own eyewitness of the transfiguration. He then commends the prophetic word and warns about teachers who will twist it. These verses give the reason the prophetic writings can be trusted.
What it establishes
It establishes that prophecy originates in God's initiative and is carried by his Spirit, and that it is therefore not the product of human self-expression. The emphasis falls on origin, not on a reader's method.
What it does not establish
It is not mainly a rule for private reading. The phrase rendered interpretation is disputed: it may mean the prophet's own decoding of a vision, or the community's reading, rather than a ban on individual study. The second sense is often preached from the verse, not clearly stated in it.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.