JANNES AND MAMBRES. - Names of two Egyptian magicians who, according to Jewish traditions, opposed Moses at the court of the pharaoh. St. Paul mentions them in II Tim. 3:8. In the Greek, however, the second name is Ἰαμβρῆς.
The Aramaic variants are collected by H. Odeberg in C. Kittel, Theol. Wörterbuch zum Neuen Test., III, Stuttgart 1939, p. 193.
Since these names occur neither in the Old Testament nor in Flavius Josephus or Philo, the question arises as to where Paul drew them from. Some, with Theodoret (In II Tim., 3, 8: PG 82, 847), think of an oral tradition; others, with the Ambrosiaster (PL 17, 494) and Origen (In Matth. lat.: PG 13, 1769), think of an apocryphon, the liber I. et M. In the Contra Celsum (IV, 51: PG 11, 1112) Origen reports that the Neopythagorean Numenius (2nd century A.D.) knew a "story of Moses and I. and Iambres." Pliny the Elder (d. 79 A.D.) also knows of "alia magices factio a Mose, et Ianne et Lotape ac Iudeis pendens" (Hist. nat., 30, 2, 11). According to C. Spicq, the work to which Pliny alludes would be earlier than 65 and therefore could be cited by Paul. It does not follow, however, that the Apostle cites as sacred this or other apocrypha containing such names, such as the Sadokite Document (cf. M.-J. Lagrange, in Rev. bibl., 21 [1912], p. 222) or the Gospel of Nicodemus (ch. 5). These names are also mentioned by Apuleius (Apol., 80), by the Acts of Paul and Peter, by the Constitut. Apostol. (8, 1), and by the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan on Ex. 1, 15; 7, 11; Num. 22, 22 (which calls them sons of Balaam).
Bibliography3 works
Pietro De Ambroggi