Jannes and Jambres

Biblical Record

In the Bible, the names Jannes and Jambres appear only once, in 2 Timothy 3:8: "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth." The following verse, 3:9, states that the folly of the false teachers will be exposed, just as the folly of those two men was: "for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."

The Book of Exodus contains scenes in which the magicians of Egypt (practitioners of sorcery) oppose Moses and Aaron as they perform signs before Pharaoh. Exodus does not give the names of these magicians.

• Exodus 7:11-12: The magicians also turned their rods into serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
• Exodus 7:22; 8:7: The magicians duplicated the turning of water into blood and the bringing up of frogs.
• Exodus 8:18-19: When they could not produce lice from the dust, the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."
• Exodus 9:11: The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils.

Significance Within Scripture

Second Timothy 3 describes the people who will appear when "in the last days perilous times shall come" (3:1). In this passage, Jannes and Jambres serve as an example that sheds light on the character of false teachers. They represent those who outwardly imitate the work of God but ultimately cannot prevail against the truth and are exposed for what they are. The Old Testament does not record their names; the names first appear in the New Testament.

Interpretations and Debates

Source of the names. Because the names are absent from the text of Exodus, the prevailing view is that the author of 2 Timothy drew on a tradition circulating among Jews at the time. The names of the two magicians are also reported to appear in later Jewish literature, including the Targums (Aramaic paraphrases of Scripture) and rabbinic writings. Their spelling varies somewhat from source to source. The early church father Origen is also recorded as stating that the names came from a secret book titled Jannes and Jambres. A pseudepigraphal work bearing this name (pseudepigrapha being Jewish and Christian writings not included in the canon) survives in fragmentary form.

Citation and the canon. The quotation of the prophecy of Enoch in Jude is often cited alongside this passage as another instance of a New Testament author drawing on extrabiblical tradition. The conservative position holds that the author simply made use of a single fact preserved in the tradition and did not thereby recognize the entire book containing that tradition as canonical. Scholars also treat the passage as an example of Second Temple Jewish tradition reflected in the New Testament.

The magicians' wonders. Interpreters differ on whether the magicians' feats involved genuine supernatural power or sleight of hand and trickery. The text describes their method only as "with their enchantments" (Exodus 7:11).

Authorship. Second Timothy has traditionally been accepted as a letter of Paul, and many Korean denominations generally hold this position. Some scholars argue that it was written at a later date.

Later embellishments. Stories that the two men were brothers or that they were sons of Balaam belong to later tradition, not to the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Jannes and Jambres are discussed mainly in sermons on 2 Timothy 3. They are mentioned briefly in the context of warnings about the signs of the last days and about false teaching, and they sometimes serve as an illustration in sermons warning against heresy. In Sunday school lessons and Bible studies on the Ten Plagues, they are sometimes introduced as the names of the Egyptian magicians.