Note: Although Bible Brain typically uses the KJV, this post was written for God Squad Apologetics before Bible Brain was made. In order to make things easier on myself, I'm keeping the original translation choice. Please see our about section for information on our translation choice.
I have often said that the only pen you should use on your Bible is a highlighter. Good advice, but as shown by the meme shown in today's image, even this can be abused. A Catholic shared this meme in an apologetics group I used to be a part of, and of course I believe it deserves a response.
Of course, lacking context, it would be very hard to understand this meme. 2 Peter 1:20 is a very common verse used to prove Sola Scriptura, not refute it, and it's not hard to see why. But the reason Catholics use this verse is its use of the term "private interpretation", or "one's own interpretation". These are phrases Catholics use to describe unsupervised Bible study. In Catholicism, the Bible is essentially the property of the Church, and is not to be read or interpreted without their "aid". Rather than testing the teachings of the Catholic Church against the Bible, the Bible is interpreted through the lens of the Catholic Church. If you study it without their help, you are accused of being a "lone ranger", and warned that you are not going to find anything no one has ever found before you.
I am actually surprised by the translation chosen by the original meme, as it presents the most obvious refutation. In the NABRE, a popular Catholic translation, it is a lot more open to interpretation, as it reads "Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,". This fits a lot more with the Catholic interpretation, but for whatever reason, the memer chose the ESV, which clearly points out that the correct context. No prophecy of scripture come from someone's own interpretation. Even the significantly more ambiguous NABRE does not say it cannot be read or understood individually.
What further shocks me is that the meme continues to underline verse 21, further solidifying the correct interpretation. If the Catholic interpretation was correct, it would say "no scripture is a matter of private interpretation, but it must be understood with the help of Holy Mother Church". Instead, in the ESV, it says "For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." We see, then, that nothing in 2 Peter 1 is in conflict with Sola Scriptura. Quite the opposite. In full context, verses 16-21 basically says "scripture is reliable because God inspired it, and we're yet more witnesses in a long string of witnesses". In other words, this stuff isn't made up. How do you go from that to "don't read this book without help"? Simple: By privately interpreting 2 Peter 1:20-21 to mean you can't privately interpret 2 Peter 1:20-21. Does that not sound logical?