The same can be said of you or Luther, anyone who tries to base his authority strictly solely on the Scriptures. Its words may be interpreted differently by different readers. Even the Catholic Church does not claim to have an authoritative interpretation of every passage of the Bible but only those that have given rise to controversy and cause division in the Church. Biblical scholarship can only take one so far and in fact may led people astray. It is said that the great Rabbi Maimonides almost argued himself out of his faith in God, and scholars such as Luther argued themselves out of the faith in which they were reared. In his book "Jesus of Nazareth, " the pope--not a biblical scholar himself but well-read in what they have to say, takes what one may call a "common sense" look at what the Gospels have to say about Jesus, which is pretty much what Catholic Tradition does, and takes the books at face value. The scholars someone disapprove as though he were poaching on their territory, because the "naive" view--which is pretty much what evangelicals also believe--is not good enough for them.
Fact is that the pope is NOT nor does he claim to be the final authority on the meaning of the Scripture. Joseph Ratzinger knows his personal limitation, and Benedict XVI knows the limitation of his office.