Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 3:8

"And even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth. Men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith." — 2 Timothy 3:8 (ASV)

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses.—To one brought up, like Timothy, by a pious Jewish mother, and who from a child knew the Holy Scriptures and all the history and ancient traditions connected with the early history of the people, such a comparison would be very striking. No child of Israel could hear the name of Moses, the loved hero of the chosen people, unmoved. To be told that these false teachers of Ephesus stood in the same relation to him and the Church of Christ as, in old days—in the never-to-be-forgotten Egyptian episode—those famous magicians Jannes and Jambres stood to Moses, would shed new light for Timothy on all the words and works of these wicked and ambitious men.

We can well imagine the comparison being repeated in many an assembly of the faithful, long after the great Apostle’s death: how St. Paul had likened these early Heresiarchs to those evil men who, in Pharaoh's presence, had dared to resist God and His servant Moses. These magicians, also termed wise men and sorcerers (Exodus 7:11–22) at the court of Pharaoh, appear as the enemies of Moses. The names “Jannes” and “Jambres,” though not given in the sacred text, are preserved in the oral tradition of Israel. The names are found in the Targum of Jonathan on Exodus 7:11 and Exodus 22:22.

These traditions relate how these men were sons of Balaam, and at first were the instructors of Moses, though later his enemies and opponents. One legend mentions them perishing in the catastrophe when the waves of the Red Sea overwhelmed the armies of Egypt; another tradition speaks of them having met their death in the slaughter after the worship of the golden calf, the making of which they advised. It was their prophetic words, according to these legendary histories, which, foretelling the birth of Moses, led Pharaoh to give the order for the destruction of the Jewish children. Later Jews distorted the names into John and Ambrose.

So do these also resist the truth.—The point of comparison between the depraved teachers of Ephesus and these Egyptian sorcerers consisted in a persistent and deadly enmity to the truth, which existed in both cases. The life of the prophet Balaam, the traditional father of Jannes and Jambres, supplies a vivid illustration of this malignant and persistent hatred of what is known and felt to be true. It is probable that these Ephesian heretics similarly used, or pretended to use, occult power, though this point is of little importance in the comparison.

We know, however, that the claim at least to possess mysterious and unearthly powers was often made by covetous and worldly men in these times: for instance, by Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–24), and by Elymas the sorcerer, the false prophet and Jew in Cyprus (Acts 13:6–12). See also the episode of Acts 19:18-20, when many which used curious arts came to Paul and his companions, and confessed and shewed their deeds.

Men of corrupt minds.—Literally, corrupted in their minds. Timothy might possibly have been induced to regard these evil men, though erring in some particulars, as still of the flock of Christ, to which they belonged nominally. But he was now instructed that they were simply enemies to the truth. It was vain to hope that they would ever come to a knowledge of the truth, because their “mind,” the human spirit, the medium of communication with the Holy Spirit of God, was corrupted. There was no common ground of faith, except for the mere name of Christian, between Timothy and these men, for they, in the matter of faith, had been tried and found wanting.