Then I think they weren’t very good scholars. I find Christian scholars like the Jesuits very talented in twisting the language and ideas until it fits their ideology.
Besides, I do think interpretation is required to read such books without taking silly interpretation shortcuts, but I’d rather have it from a secular religion history researcher.
Edit: I was thinking about this scholastic system of education from the Middle Ages that made them so good at this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disputation