Go back to the time of Christ on earth. A confrontation occurs in Matthew 15. The Pharisees came to Jesus over the issue of the “tradition of the elders” (verse 2). Jesus turned the tables on them by accusing them of transgressing the commands of God by their traditions. The word “transgress” means to go beyond. They, the Pharisees, were going beyond what God had revealed and were binding on others the application of the law. When they applied the law of Moses, as in this case of eating without ceremoniously washing their hands, their application became law. Jesus teaches that such destroys the commands of God.
Many hundreds of years later the Catholic Church emerged in power. The foundation of that power was they convinced the people that they could not understand the Bible without the Church giving them the meaning. Hence they successfully “chained the Bible to the pulpit”. When the Reformation began, it was sincere men leading the battle to say that the person can understand what is written. When the Bible began to be translated into different languages, the Catholic Church became concerned. Why is this the case? Because they knew if people started reading they would begin to know something was wrong.
People are reluctant to study the Bible because they have become convinced that they cannot know it or that it requires the Holy Spirit doing something to help them know it. Whichever case it is, people place their faith and hence salvation on what some man has said. The warning from scripture is do not elevate a man above that which is written (I Cor. 4:6). A similar problem is that the message gets out if you do not know the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic you cannot know truth. God never left the salvation of man to be dependent on languages. The church began when people with about 15 different dialects heard the truth in their own language.