Bible interpretation is called "hermeneutics." It is both a science and an art.
Sadly, most people do not have a clue the basics of how to rightly divide the Word of God, and that is where errors creep in.
I was going to do a whole post on good hermeneutics, and correct exegesis, which is looking into the words, the passages and taking OUT of them what God is saying, rather than taking an opinion or dogma, and reading into the Bible.
I may get around to that post yet, if my health would just improve a tiny bit!
"Exegesis is the first part of the bible interpretation process.Essentially, it is the grammatical, historical and cultural study of a passage of the Bible to try to determine its meaning to the original audience.
It is trying to answer the question: "What was God trying to say to the original hearers of a particular text?"
Too often we start from the perspective of what this texts means to me. It is a subjective way to read the Scriptures and has the potential to severely misinterpret a passage of Scripture.
Thus, it is critically important to engage in exegesis to try to the original message of the author.
In order to understand the word of God for our modern context, we must first understand the word of God for its ancient context."
"Hermeneutics, properly speaking is the art and science of biblical interpretation and comes from the Greek term,
hermeneuo, which means to interpret or to explain.
Hermeneutics essentially incorporates all of the tools and techniques that make up the process of biblical interpretation.
It not only includes exegesis (the study of the Bible to understand a passage in its ancient context), but also includes models for applying a biblical passage to a modern context.
As mentioned in our previous example, you cannot jump directly from the biblical passage to our modern context without doing an injustice to the Bible and without coming up with some strange doctrine or practice within the Christian church."
Bible Interpretation - Lesson 1.2 - Defining Exegesis and Hermeneutics
This is seriously the reason for much of the disagreements that go on in the church today. And no, the RCC does not have a superior right to interpret the Bible, based on false claims of apostolic succession.
And yes, some people don't really know Jesus at all, do not have the Holy Spirit working in their hearts and lives, and that can lead to very wrongly interpreting the Bible.
And of course, there are the many with a favourite doctrine that they pull Scriptures out of context to prove their point. That is where a good understanding of hermeneutics comes in. And why those bad doctrines keep coming back, because people do not properly interpret the Bible.