The Origin of the Bible
by Kerry Duke
One of the clearest passages in the Bible concerning its origin is II Peter 1:20-21. Peter said, ". . .no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Peter here uses the word prophecy to refer to special revelation in a general sense, not merely prophecy in the sense of what is called predictive prophecy. The phrase "prophecy of Scripture" means prophecy which is Scripture (cf. "the reward of the inheritance" in Col. 3:24, "the sign of circumcision" in Rom. 4:11, etc.). The words is of are key terms. They are from ginetai, a form of ginomai, which means to be, to become, or to come into being. Here it means that Scripture did not come from private interpretation, or, one’s own interpretation or explanation. Scripture is not man’s interpretation of what the will of God is. The word "for" in verse 21 (gar) signals an explanation of what has been said in verse 20: "the prophecy came not . . . by the will of man." Peter gave his own inspired interpretation of verse 20 in verse 21. The phrase "private interpretation" in verse 20 is explained in verse 21 as "the will of man." Thus Peter is talking about the origin of Scripture, not its interpretation.
The origin of Scripture is not in the will of man but in inspiration, described as Bible writers speaking "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The word "moved" is from pheromai, from phero, to bear; thus, Bible writers were born along by the Holy Spirit. The writing did not originate in their mind. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would "guide" these men into all truth (John 16:13). Paul said, "The things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord" (I Cor. 14:37). These words define for us the meaning of Paul’s statement, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (II Tim. 3:16-17).
The plain meaning of II Peter 1:20, which is made exceedingly clear in verse 21, has been obscured by false ideas. A well known perversion of Peter’s words is the Roman Catholic abuse of this text. Note the following Catholic sources:
. . . no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will. . . (New American Bible, 1970).
. . . no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. For prophecy came not by the will of man. . . (Douay-Rheims, 1914).
This shows plainly that the Scriptures are not to be expounded by any one’s private judgment or private spirit, because every part of the holy scriptures were written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, and declared as such by the church; therefore, they are not to be interpreted but by the Spirit of God, which he hath left, and promised to remain with his church to guide her in all truth to the end of the world. (footnote to II Peter 1:20 in the Douay-Rheims version).
Besides being against the plain meaning of the text already set forth, the Catholic position on this passage is self-defeating. Catholics urge us to use our own minds to interpret this passage in the manner they do, yet they claim we cannot use our minds to know that we are correctly interpreting Scripture! They are guilty of the same inconsistency when they call on us to use our own private reasoning powers to consider their arguments for the Catholic religion!
Another misunderstanding of this text is seen in the comments of lexicographer Joseph Henry Thayer:
. . . no one can explain prophecy by his own mental power (it is a matter of subjective interpretation), but to explain it one needs the same illumination of the Holy Spirit in which it originated, for etc. 2 Pet. 1:20. (Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 116).
But one does not have to be inspired in order to understand the inspired text. Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. . ." (John 7:17). Paul plainly told the Ephesians, "When ye read, ye may understand" (Eph. 3:4; cf. Matt. 24:15).
Second Peter 1:20-21 is a powerful statement about the inspiration of Scripture. Once the idea that it is a passage on biblical interpretation is removed, its meaning becomes clear. Scripture is from God, not man. It was proven to be from God by the miracles performed to confirm its divine origin, and it continues to prove itself to be the Word of God by the divine characteristics it displays (fulfilled prophecies, scientific foreknowledge, extraordinary unity, etc.). The men who wrote the books of the Bible were miraculously guided by a divine superintendence known as inspiration. As a result, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed" (II Pet. 1:19).