English translations usually translate 2 Peter 1:20b (πᾶσα προφητεία γραφῆς ἰδίας ἐπιλύσεως οὐ γίνεται) either “no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation” (CSB), or “no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (RSV). Significantly different, verse 20b is translated into Korean in two somewhat similar ways. It is taken to mean either that no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted arbitrarily (NT) or that no prophecy of Scripture is to be interpreted privately (e.g., NKRV).
This article suggests that the translation of 2 Peter 1:20b by the New Korean Revised Version, though grammatically possible, be revised in such a way as to indicate that it means that no prophecy of Scripture comes about by the prophet’s own interpretation. This reading is supported by an in-depth study of such important words as ἴδιος, γίνομαι, and βέβαιος in addition to a close reading of the immediate context. Among other things, this article argues that the ἰδίας of 2Peter 1:20b refers to the interpreter himself rather than the individual reader of any prophecy of Scripture.
This study also draws attention to the significant similarity between verse 20b thus read and verse 21a, which both indicate that no prophecy of Scripture comes from individual prophets. Then, verse 20 semantically matches not only verse 19, which speaks of the absolute certainty of prophecy, but also verse 21, which speaks of the divine source of prophecy. Verses 19-21, as a semantically coherent unit, foreground the authoritativeness of prophecy. As a corollary, these verses are nicely compared with verses 16-18, which refer to the certainty of the author’s experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. Verses 16-21 form a crescendo (v. 19) in the sense that the more certainty of the prophetic word (vv. 20-21) outweighs, at least taken at face value, the certainty of the author’s eyewitness account (v. 16). Biblical prophecy is more certain than any human experience (v. 19), because no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation (v. 20), on the one hand, and prophecy never came by the human will but from God (v. 21), on the other hand. As well, verses 19-21 are sharply contrasted with 2 Peter 2:1-3, which condemn the fabricated words by false teachers. All things considered, the suggested translation of 2 Peter 1:20b, “no prophecy of Scripture comes about by the prophet’s own interpretation”, needs to be reflected in the New Korean Revised Version.