2 Timothy 3:8

The apostle now returns from the γυναικάρια to their seducers, whom he compares to the magicians who withstood Moses and Aaron, both in their hostility to the truth and in their subsequent fate. St. Paul is the earliest extant authority for the names; but of course he derived them from some source, written (Origen), or unwritten (Theodoret), it is immaterial which. But the former theory is the more probable. The book is called by Origen (in Matt. p. 916, on Matthew 27:8), Jannes et Mambres liber, and is perhaps identical with Pœnitentia Jamnis et Mambrae condemned in the Decretum Gelasii. Pliny, whose Natural History appeared in A.D. 77, mentions Jannes along with Moses and Lotapis (or Jotapis) as Jewish Magi posterior to Zoroastes (Hist. Nat. xxx. 1). He is followed by Apuleius, Apol. c. 90. Numenius (quoted by Eusebius (Prep. Ev. ix. 8) mentions Jannes and Jambres as magicians who resisted Moses. In the Targ. of Jonathan on Ex. vii. 11, the names are given as ינים וימברים, Janis and Jamberes; but in the Talmud as יחנא וממרא, Jochana and Mamre. It is generally agreed that Jannes is a form of Jochanan (Johannes), and that Jambres is from the Hiphil of מרה to rebel. For the legends associated with these names, see art. in Hastings' D. B.

ἀντέστησαν : The same word is used of Elymas the Sorcerer, Acts 13:8. The οὕτως refers rather to the degree of their hostility than to the manner in which it was expressed, i.e., by magical arts. At the same time, it is possible that magic was practised by the false teachers; they are styled impostors, γόητες, in 2 Timothy 3:13; and Ephesus was a home of magic. See Acts 19:19.

κατεφθαρμένοι τὸν νοῦν : cf. 1 Timothy 6:5, διεφθαρμ. τὸν νοῦν. This is the Pauline equivalent for the Platonic “lie in the soul”. κατεφθ. is not coordinate with ἀδόκ.; the latter is the exemplification of the former.

ἀδόκιμοι : reprobate. The A.V.m. gives the word here, and in Titus 1:16, an active force, of no judgment, void of judgment. For περί with the acc. See on 1 Timothy 1:19.