What a silly argument. He was reading to understand... and failing to understand, he sought a teacher. This flies in the face of your assertion that Scripture may be easily understood by all who read it.
You have missed the point of the passage, namely, that this portion of scripture is harder than others, and he was asking the correct questions from the text ... "of whom does the prophet speak?"
No, you missed the point of the passage, namely, that he didn't understand what he was reading and needed a teacher to explain it to him. You are taking great pains to be obtuse because the text is plainly against your assertion.
Also, do you use this passage to support a doctrine that we as individuals cannot understand the text without a priest, church, etc? What about all the commands in scripture that we are to read, memorize, teach, preach, obey, etc. the scriptures? Does that not imply it is understandable?
The Israelites were given such instruction throughout their history and they had their personal scrolls of the Torah and instructions throughout their homes. However, they also had Scribes, Rabbis and Priests to explain the Scriptures to them for their common understanding.
Heresy isn't just getting something wrong, it is elevating one part of the truth to the whole truth. Yes, people are to hear (note that Romans speaks of hearing, not individually reading... this would happen at Church because St Gutenberg hadn't given us mass-produced Bibles yet) and meditate on the Scripture... but they aren't supposed to go their own way with their own interpretations. That is entirely the purpose of the Epistles... they were written to bring back into conformity what had lapsed in the various churches. They were written from the authority given by Christ to the Church to maintain the unity of Faith.
Eph 3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
It is the function of the Church to teach the principalities.
It doesn't, your passage shows one case where one verse was hard for someone to understand. What you are trying to do is extrapolate that into "the whole Bible is not understandable without a teacher." I suggest you go through Psalm 119.
However, they also had Scribes, Rabbis and Priests to explain the Scriptures to them for their common understanding.
So lemme get this straight. You maintain that the Jews read, followed, obeyed, listened to, taught their children from their own personal copy of the scriptures (or the Torah portions, whatever) ... but they couldn't understand them without the teachers?
Seems to me it was the TEACHERS of Israel that didn't believe in Christ ... and the common disciple folks who did. Sorry, Psalm 19:7 still applies.
but they aren't supposed to go their own way with their own interpretations. That is entirely the purpose of the Epistles... they were written to bring back into conformity what had lapsed in the various churches.
So Paul the teacher wrote the epistles to correct ... but we cant understand that correction by reading it, we need another teacher to tell us what the teacher wrote?
It is the function of the Church to teach the principalities.
What principalities? Which principalities are you talking about?