JANNES AND JAMBRES jăn’ ĭz, jăm’ brĭz (̓Ιαννῆς καὶ̀ ̓Ιαμβρῆς, or Μαμβρῆς, cited by a few MSS; for יﯴחָנִי וּמַמרֵא; Aram. Targ. ינים וימברים, possible meaning: he who seduces and he who makes rebellious). Traditional names of Egyp. sorcerers who opposed Moses before Pharaoh (2 Tim 3:8); evidently a reference back to unnamed magicians in the OT (Exod 7:11, 12, 22).

In the Exodus narrative, Moses and Aaron delivered to Pharaoh the Lord’s message that Israel be allowed to go into the wilderness to worship God, and the monarch refused (Exod 5:1-4). Then Moses performed authenticating miracles, such as making his rod a serpent, which the sorcerers with their magic also did (Exod 7:10-12, 20-22; 8:5-7, 17, 18). It is to this series of events that Paul is referring in 2 Timothy 3:8.

The orthography of the names, Jannes and Jambres, is rather confused. The spelling in the Gr. texts is generally ̓Ιαννῆς and ̓Ιαμβρῆς, G2612, (corresponding to the Targum of Jonathan on Exod 1:15; 7:11; Num 22:22, which has Yanis and Yambris). The Talmud, however, has Yôhanî and Mamre’, and the Lat. reading is Jannes (or Jamnes) and Mambres.

These two names are mentioned in Scripture only in 2 Timothy 3:8 and are evidently connected with Jewish tradition. The names are also mentioned in pagan and early Christian lit. These terms are either thought of as a part of Jewish oral tradition, or connected with a book that had the title Jamnes et Mambres, as mentioned by Origen (Tract 35 in Matt.) and in the Decretum Gelasii (Credner, p. 220). Schürer (HJP, sec. div., III, p. 149) refers to a Jewish apocryphal work bearing both of these names, but which had disappeared except for the title and which he thinks may have been composed in pre-Christian times because the name Jannes was known by Pliny in the 1st cent.

Besides being mentioned in the Jewish Targum of Jonathan, and the Talmud, pagan writers knew of these two names. Both Pliny the Elder (1st cent. a.d.) in his Historia Natural 30, 1, 11 and Apuleius (2nd cent. a.d.) in his Apologia (or De Magia) ch. 90, refer to Jannes, whereas the neo-Platonist Numenius of Apamea (2nd cent. a.d.) referred to in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 9, 8, 1, was acquainted with both Jannes and Jambres, calling them holy scribes and magicians of Egypt.

Among materials connected with the Church and written in the early Christian centuries where reference is made to the names, Jannes and Jambres, are mentioned in such Gr. works as Evangelium Nicodemi (Acta Pilati) ch. 5, and the Apostolic Constitution 8, 1, and Lat. works as Evangelium Nicodemi (Gesta Pilati), ch. 5 and Cyprian, De unitate ecclesia, ch. 16.

That Paul mentions these traditional names in 2 Timothy 3:8 evidences his acquaintance with this current Jewish tradition (he was a student of Gamaliel, Acts 22:3) and, by using these terms (which could have been accurately passed down from OT history), Paul seemingly demonstrates his desire to make vivid the personal and forceful opposition of the Egyp. magician class against Moses. The Jewish tradition about Jannes and Jambres is confused as shown by Eusebius’ statement (Praeparatio Evangelica 9, 8) that these two men were sons of Baalim but yet teachers of Moses and then his opponents, who then died with the Egyp. army in the Red Sea.

Bibliography E. Schürer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 2nd rev. ed., sec div., vol. 3 (1891), 149-151; W. Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles (1965), 287, 288.