The Catholic view of authority and Holy Scripture is not about some ubiquitous churchman looking over everyone’s shoulder so that they would interpret each verse exactly as the Church says it ought to be interpreted (in fact, fewer than 10 Bible verses are “officially” interpreted by the Catholic Church). People can read the Bible and it is largely clear — just not always, and it is not self-interpreting enough to prevent heresy without the Church intervening on behalf of orthodoxy. This is the Catholic and biblical rule of faith.

2 Peter 3:15-17 (RSV) So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.

Note that St. Peter makes a general statement: “There are some things in them [St. Paul’s letters] hard to understand.” Then he notes that these “things” are what “the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction.” If there is any doubt that he is thinking in general terms at this point (some Protestant exegetes have indeed doubted that), there can be none when we see that he writes, “as they do the other Scriptures.” So now Peter is saying that many Scriptures — not necessarily even those written just by Paul — are “twist[ed]” by the ignorant and unstable. 

And this, of course, proves the Catholic point and disproves the Protestant one about the perspicuity of Scripture: supposedly sufficient enough as to preclude a binding, authoritative interpretation from the Church. Note also that Peter ends with a warning: “lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.” In other words, he thinks the problem is sufficiently serious to warn every reader to be vigilant and not be led astray.

A comeback may be that Peter is teaching that Pauline and some other portions of Scripture are difficult only for the “ignorant and unstable.” The problem with that is that many people are “ignorant” (i.e., simply lacking knowledge of Scripture, or its exegesis, and the nature and exercise of hermeneutics: systematic interpretation of Scripture). Anyone who has spent much time at all in Christian circles (Protestant and Catholic alike; and I’ve been in both for many years) knows full well of the massive amount of biblical illiteracy. That’s all it takes to distort the Bible, even before we get to deliberate heresy or spiritual, emotional or theological instability.

2 Peter 1:20-21 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

The overall point Peter is making is that prophecy can’t be understood as a matter of private interpretation, because it’s spiritually discerned — having come from God the Holy Spirit in the first place. The more spiritual and less carnal a thing is, the more we need an authoritative Church to interpret and apply it, because the Church is the accumulated wisdom of spiritual persons for 2,000 years, which is far superior to anyone’s specific understandings.

To nail down his point, St. Peter goes on (originally the New Testament had no verses or chapters) to warn of the bad effects of erroneous private interpretation of Scripture:

2 Peter 2:1-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them, the way of truth will be reviled. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words …

St. Paul warns about the same sort of thing:

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.

These factors are some of the many reasons why it’s a dangerous thing for individuals to think that they understand all of Scripture, and — in the final analysis, or bottom line — need no assistance from an authoritative Tradition or Church: the latter being “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Jesus also provided authoritative interpretation:

Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus later marveled at how Jesus “opened to us the Scriptures” (Luke 24:32). Those prophecies were not understood until Jesus explained them. Thus, Old Testament Scripture was insufficient for these messianic truths to be grasped simply by reading them.

Holy Scripture informs us that some parts of it were “closed” and “not plain” until the “infallible” teaching authority and interpretation of our Lord Jesus opened it up and made it plain. This runs utterly contrary to the Protestant notion of the perspicuity of Scripture and its more or less ubiquitous self-interpreting nature, at the very least as regards salvation.

In this instance, it did have to do with salvation, because Jesus was talking about “all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” They hadn’t understood those passages until Jesus “opened” them up to them. It’s hard to imagine a clearer refutation of the Protestant notion of “perspicuity” of Scripture. Jesus then appeared to the 11 disciples and reiterated the same teaching:

Luke 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures …