2 Timothy 3:1-13
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Concerning this resistance of Moses by Jannes and Jambres, the Holy Scripture saith nothing but in this text.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): We should not have known the names of these ancient opposers of the truth of God, had they not been recorded by the Holy Ghost, in connection with “the perilous times” of which the Apostle Paul warns his son Timothy.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Their names Paul had either by tradition, or out of Jewish records.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): That these names existed in the ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan, on Exodus 7:11, they are called Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical arts.
THE EDITOR: Targum means “translation.” The Targum of Jonathan is an Aramaic translation of the first five books of the Bible. A Talmud “is a collection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and tradition.” But it was by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration that Paul recorded their correct proper names for our learning. Jackson’s 1909 Dictionary of Proper Names, suggests that Jannes means “he vexed,” and Jambres, “foamy healer.”
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The Greek word translated “seducers,” in verse thirteen, properly signifies sorcerers, magicians, jugglers, witches, or enchanters. Jannes and Jambres were evidently such; impostors who endeavoured to vend a false religion for a true one, and to support it by their incantations.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The reason why there were two of them may be conjectured to have been that, because the Lord had raised up for His people two leaders, Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh determined to place against them the like number of magicians…Although Paul names two, Jannes and Jambres, it is probable that they were not the only ones, but the chief ringleaders. But I will not dispute this questionable point. The admonition of Paul is more to the purpose, that “as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,” so also there should always be false teachers, who would oppose Christ’s true ministers, and indeed should “wax worse and worse.”
THOMAS COKE: “But they shall proceed no further” than the magicians did, nor be able essentially and finally to deceive the faithful saints of God—and “their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”
C. H. MACKINTOSH: Now, mark the nature of this resistance to the truth. The mode in which “Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses” was simply by imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. We do not find that they attributed his actings to a false or evil energy, but rather that they sought to neutralise their power upon the conscience, by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so that, after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in; so where was the difference?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): You know Satan always works by trying to counterfeit the work of the Spirit. Jannes and Jambres in Egypt could imitate some of the miracles. They “did so with their enchantments,” Exodus 8:7. There is much in true religion which men can successfully counterfeit. But, as in Egypt, a point was reached wherein the magicians were foiled, so that they confessed, “This is the finger of God.” Jannes and Jambres were soon, by the power and wisdom of God, proved to be fools.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: There were only three things in which the magicians of Egypt were able to imitate the servants of the true and living God, namely, in turning their rods into serpents, Exodus 7:12; turning the water into blood, Exodus 7:29; and bringing up the frogs, Exodus 7:8; but, in the fourth, which involved the exhibition of life, in connection with the display of nature’s humiliation, they were totally confounded, and obliged to own, “this is the finger of God,” Exodus 8:16-19. Thus it is also with the latter-day resisters of the truth. All that they do is by the direct energy of Satan, and lies within the range of his power.
THE EDITOR: None but God by His Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, can create life; thus Aaron’s rod smote “dust of the land, and it became lice,” Exodus 8:17. That Aaron’s serpent swallowed up their serpents, shows also that there is none other salvation but by Jesus Christ.
C. H. SPURGEON: So in the regeneration of our nature—in the changing the heart—the Lord alone is seen. Who shall pretend to give another a new heart? Of regeneration we may say, “This is the finger of God.”
JOHN TRAPP: Thus Jannes and Jambres were silenced and convinced, but not converted.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so these mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:5-6 also resist the truth. This is one of the Divinely-delineated characteristics of the “perilous times.” The reference is to men and women supernaturally endowed by Satan to work miracles. Such are found today, we believe, not only among Spiritualists and Christian Scientists, but also in some leaders of the Faith-healing cults. There are those now posing as evangelists of Christ who are attracting large crowds. Their chief appeal is not the message they bear—but their readiness to “anoint” and pray over the sick. They claim that “Jesus,” in response to their faith, has through them removed paralysis, healed cancers, given sight to the blind. When their claims are carefully investigated, it is found that most of the widely-advertised “cures” are impostures. But on the other hand, there are some cases which are genuine healings, which cannot be explained apart from supernatural agency. So it was with the miracles wrought by the magicians of Pharaoh.
THE EDITOR: Deceptive “lying wonders” and fame are their tools to gain money. Beware of charismatic “faith-healers” and multi-millionaire television “evangelists.” Are they much different from these two Egyptian sorcerers, or Balaam, who used “enchantments,” and desired a reputation as God’s prophet, Numbers 22:15-18; Numbers 24:1? Or Elymas, the sorcerer who resisted Paul, Acts 13:8? Or Simon Magus?
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Simon Magus desired the gifts of the Holy Ghost that he might be a man of fame and name, Acts 8:18-21. And do not some labour to bring the gospel to town as an expedient?
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Simon Magus “used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one.”—he claimed to be a miracle worker and by his trickery and so-called magic had deceived the people: “To whom all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God,” Acts 8:9,10.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): What Simon Magus said in answer to Peter, Acts 8:24, is to the same effect as Pharaoh desired Moses, that he would pray for him, Exodus 10:17. But, like Pharaoh, the heart remained hardened. He dreaded the punishment likely to follow, and would have avoided it—but we hear no cry of soul from either, for a change of heart.
