2 Peter 1:19-21

¹⁹ And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

²⁰ knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

²¹ for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

prophetic (v.19) = stated by a prophet

confirmed (v.19) = steadfast, enduring, sure, certain

The words “in your hearts” (v.19) should follow the verb “take heed.” The Bible is a lamp. The world is morally dark and squalid, and will remain so until the Lord comes and the Day dawns. The words “private interpretation” should read “human origination,” for that is the sense of the passage. The question is: where id the Holy Scriptures originate? The answer is: not in the will of man but in the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit here declares that no Scripture is of human origination, and in 2 Timothy 3:16 He adds that all Scripture is of Divine inspiration. — Williams, page 1007.

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In the midst of the night, which will grow even darker with the coming Tribulation Period, the Prophetic Scriptures were like a lamp showing the way to the glory of the Second Coming of Christ. Peter was holding out hope to his readers that in spite of what they may be called upon to endure, soon they would experience the joy of the Lord when Christ, the bright and morning star, returns to usher them into the blessings of the Golden Age (Zephaniah 1:14-16 cf. Revelation 22:16-18).

“Knowing this first that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” We believe the sense here is, prophecy did not originate with the human writers of the Scriptures, but rather with the Holy Spirit. Prophecy should never be thought of as merely a collection of human thoughts. Given that the Scriptures originated with God, no prediction of Holy Scripture is of any private interpretation. Peter’s hearers did not necessarily have to rely upon him to interpret the Word of God; they could search the Scriptures themselves regarding the return of the Lord. — Sadler, page 191.

I know of at least on instance in which a “theologian” used verse 20 to mean that nobody should try to figure out what the Bible means on their own but, instead, should rely on what God “told” him in dreams and visions. That view is nonsense, of course, and is easily refuted by Acts 17:11 and 2 Timothy 2:15.

The divine work of inspiration passed through the writers’ very thought process (including those who spoke it orally). It miraculously filtered through their different styles of writing, vocabulary, vocations, experiences, moods, and sufferings. Yet we can safely say that the 66 Books of the Bible are the inspired Word of God in their original writings. …

There were times God gave direct revelations to the prophets, which are usually prefaced with “Thus saith the Lord.” Frequently the writers of Holy Writ were recounting their own personal experiences in the faith, such as we have here with the Apostle Peter. The writers even documented the evil deeds of men and angels. Thus the Scriptures record “lies” and “deceitful” practices, but it always does so accurately. — Sadler, pages 193-194.