Where does Scripture caution against private interpretation?

[teri]

I believe that I have read a verse of Scripture which cautions against private interpretation of Scripture. I believe it is in Paul’s letters. Can you help?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

It is the Church first pope, Peter, who cautions against depending only on one’s own abilities when interpreting Scripture:

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 (2 Pet. 1:20-21).

In the same letter, Peter also warns that Paul’s letters are difficult to understand:

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 (2 Pet. 3:15-16).