When Paul mentioned Jannes and Jambres in 2 Timothy 3:8, his audience likely knew who these men were, but readers today often do not. According to Jewish tradition, they were the magicians who opposed Moses when he called on Pharaoh to release the Israelites from slavery. On several occasions, Moses and Aaron performed miracles that the magicians could replicate. From the third plague onward, however, their secret arts failed to match those worked by the men sent by God. So, who were these magicians called Jannes and Jambres?
The Context for Jannes and Jambres
In the Bible, Paul mentions Jannes and Jambres when he warns Timothy of the attitude of some people “in the last days” (2 Timothy 3:1). He said that some people will have “the appearance of godliness” but not its power. They prey on weak-minded people who seem unable to understand truth or substance (2 Timothy 3:6-7). He then compared these people to Jannes and Jambres who opposed Moses but he does not define who these men were. Presumably, Timothy and the possible wider audience the letter may have been addressed to knew who they were.
It seems as if Paul was building on the knowledge commonly held in ancient society. Yet, it is traceable to Jewish tradition which Paul employs to drive his point home. Scholars have noted that sources from Pagan, Jewish, and Christian origin in various languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Syriac mention two Egyptian magicians from the time of Moses called Jannes and Jambres.
When the Bible relates the events that occurred at Pharaoh’s court where Aaron cast down his staff and it turned into a serpent, the king “summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and … the magicians of Egypt.” No names are specified in the biblical text. From Paul’s reference to Jannes and Jambres, it is also unclear whether these two were wise men, sorcerers, or magicians.
Nevertheless, extra-biblical ancient sources show that they were magicians who wielded considerable power. They were able to replicate the staff that turned into a serpent, and the first and second plagues: they could turn water into blood (Exodus 7:22), and had frogs come forth to cover the land (Exodus 8:7). It is unclear how Pharoah could distinguish between the miracle Aaron performed and the secret art of the magicians as far as the frogs were concerned.
Jannes and Jambres in the Talmud
Rabbinic literature uses slightly different renditions of the names of the two sorcerers, with the Babylonian Talmud referring to them as “Johana and Mamre,” while the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan calls them “Jannis and Jambres.” Jambres likely comes from an Aramaic root that appropriately means “to oppose.” Some Latin texts render their names as “Jamnes and Mambres.” These and similar sources provide considerably more detail than the Bible does.
Jannes and Jambres were, according to one midrash, the sons of Balaam (Numbers 22). Another has them leaving Egypt with the Israelites after Passover (Exodus 13). Differing versions exist of how they died. One version suggests they died in the Red Sea with the Egyptian army (Exodus 14). Another has them killed after they were instrumental in influencing the Israelites to build a golden calf to worship when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32). Yet another has them perish with the rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16). Another has them exerting their negative influence on the Israelites until the time of Phinehas when they, too, were slaughtered (Numbers 25).
Jannes and Jambres in Other Works
According to the Damascus Document, a 2nd-century BCE work, “Belial raised Jannes and his brother by his evil device when Israel was delivered for the first time.” Fragments of this document were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Bilial connection may indicate that their magic was demonic.
Pliny the Elder, a 1st-century Roman historian, believed Jannes was a Jewish sorcerer. This may be due to the uniquely Jewish nature of the name Jannes. If this is true, the dynamic of the struggle between Moses and Aaron on the one hand, and the magicians of Pharaoh on the other, intensifies. Jannes and Jambres, if they were apostate Israelites, would likely have been known to Moses. He may have had exposure to them when he lived in the palace until he was 40 years of age.
According to the claims of the Damascus Document and Pliny’s take on Jannes, the two magicians did not oppose Moses with parlor tricks or sleight of hand but were practicing demonic power after they rejected the God of Israel.
The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres is a pseudepigraphic work that likely originated in Roman Egypt between the 1st and 3rd centuries. The complete book was known to scholars like Origen and Numenius, and it was attributed to an official of Pharaoh, but it has been partly lost. Significant fragments of the book in Greek, Latin, Old English, and Ethiopic have been recovered.
According to the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres, Jannes contracted leprosy when opposing Moses, and warned Pharaoh that Aaron’s miracles were of divine origin. He was shown how he would die, and it came to pass that way. This work suggests that Jannes and Jambres were the grandsons of the High Priest of Egypt, Petephres, or “Potiphera priest of On” whose daughter married Joseph (Genesis 41:45, 50; 46:20).
The timeline that is implied by the suggestion that Petephres was the grandfather of Jannes and Jambres would be impossible to reconcile with the biblical narrative. Approximately 440 years passed between the time Joseph married the daughter of Petephres and the exodus.
Apuleius and Numenius, two 2nd-century CE authors, mention Jannes and Jambres by name and the text of the Chester Beatty XVI papyrus indicates that at least two versions of Jannes and Jambres existed in Greek and that the two brothers were likely twins. It also records Jambres summoning Jannes from Hades after his death.
Jannes and Jambres in Early Christian Literature
The Church Father Origen refers to a Book of Jannes and Jambres (Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres) and claims that Paul was quoting from it in 2 Timothy 3:8. Two facts can be deduced from what Origen had to say. The first is that the Book of Jannes and Jambres could not have been written after the middle of the 3rd century when Origen referenced it. Secondly, Origen believed that the book was already available to Paul in the 1st century CE.
Ambrosiaster, a Church Father whose work dates to a century after Origen, also connected the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres with Paul’s comment in 2 Timothy. Eusebius, in Praeparatio Evangelica, pointed out how the Jewish tradition on Jannes and Jambres is confusing: it presents them as teachers and opponents of Moses and sons of Balaam who died in the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s armies.
The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres appears in a list of apocryphal works known to scholars in the 6th century as the Paenitentia Iamne et Mambre (Penitence of Jannes and Jambres).
Other early Christian works that mention Jannes and Jambres include the Evangelium Nicodemi (Acta Pilati), the Apostolic Constitution, Evangelium Nicodemi (Gesta Pilati), and De Unitate Ecclesia. The idea that Jannes and Jambres were the names of two Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses was widely known within early Christianity.
Weighing the Evidence
Some of these stories about Jannes and Jambres are anachronistic, contradictory, or simply impossible. One example would be that Jannes and Jambres could not have foretold the birth of Moses to Pharaoh, be the sons of Balaam, grandsons of Petephres, and be involved in the alleged activities during the journey of Israel through the desert.
It is not clear which versions of the tradition about Jannes and Jambres Paul was familiar with. He may have learned of them from his teacher Gamaliel though he has also been known to quote from many other extra-biblical sources. He was a very well-read scholar and would likely have known of the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres, or at least the Talmudic tradition about them. What is known is that he, Timothy, and possibly other intended readers were familiar enough with traditions about the Egyptian magicians that Paul felt it appropriate to employ them as an example by using their names without providing any further detail.
Paul’s reference to the names of Jannes and Jambres should not be construed as his endorsement of either the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres or the Talmudic tradition about them. Many examples from the Old and New Testaments exist where books that are not canonical were referenced to make a point.
Whichever tradition the reader chooses to accept, they all agree that Jannes and Jambres were Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses by performing similar miracles and strengthening Pharoah’s resolve not to let the Israelites go. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, and the Gospel of Matthew, 24:24, warn of miracles done by false teachers who want to deceive people not well-grounded in truth. That may well be why Paul mentions Jannes and Jambres in 2 Timothy 3:8.
