3:8: As Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses.
1. The names of both men are, in the Talmud and sometimes in the
midrashic works, יוֹחָנִי
or יוֹחָנָא (= John) and מַמְרֵי
(= the rebellious); in the targumim, יַנֵּיס
and יַמְבְּרֵיס or יַמְרֵיס. — יַמְבְּרֵיס
= Ἰαμβρῆς arose from מַמְרֵי, because, under Hellenistic influence for
the purpose of easier pronunciation, the first מ
in ממרי was softened to י and then a ב
was inserted before ר.
The same insertion of β
between μ and ρ is found with Νέμβροδ in LXX Gen 10:8 and with Μάμβρη in LXX Gen 13:18; 14:13. — In later
midrashic works, we also encounter the name forms יוּנּוֹס and יוּמְבְּרוֹס
or יָנוֹס and יַמְבְּרִינוֹס. See the passages in the following citations.
2. Most of the time in the Jewish tradition, Jannes and Jambres are
considered to be sons of Balaam.a Together with their father they
occupy a privileged position in the court of the Egyptian king.b
They use their position to propose to pharaoh the plan to cast all Israelite
boys into the water.c When Moses remains alive, their father
counsels the king to have him eliminated immediately. Yet even this plan fails.d
Then they consider it advisable to leave Egypt; they go to Ethiopia. Later they
return to pharaoh’s courte and appear now as the sorcerers who with
their arts try to thwart the release of Israel.f When they
nevertheless cannot prevent the exodus, they ostensibly acknowledge Moses’
superiority and convert as proselytes to Judaism.g In reality, though,
they undertake this step only in order to be able to continue to harm Israel.
So it is they in the first place who cause the people to demand of Aaron to
make the golden calf.h As a punishment for this, they perish in the
slaughter of Exod 32:27ff.i There is another tradition alongside
this that claims that they perished with the Egyptians in the sea.j
These views stand in contradiction, though, with the interpretation of Num
22:22 that holds that they were the two “knaves” or “fellows” who accompanied
Balaam on his journey to king Balak.a Consequently, they would still
have been alive at the end of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
There was, accordingly, no unified tradition about Jannes and Jambres; all the
statements only agree that they oppose Moses at every turn and are filled with
a hostile attitude toward Israel.
3. Apart from the entirely incidental mention of Yuhna and Mamre in b.
Menaḥ. 85A—see, n. f—we hear nothing
about the legend of Jannes and Jambres in all of the older rabbinic literature.
The later Targum Yerušalmi I and the later midrash work Tanḥuma are the first
writings that know about the details of the legend. Nevertheless, in view of 2
Tim 3:8, it cannot be doubted that the kernel of the traditions about Jannes
and Jambres, namely their hostility toward Moses, was already generally known
in the oldest period. We have here a classic proof for the truth that
traditions can be old even if they are encountered literarily only in a later
period.
a. Targum Yerušalmi I Numbers 22:22:
“(Balaam) rode on his jenny and his two youths עולימוי
(boys, knaves) Jannes and Jamres with him.” — The tradition then made the two
knaves Balaam’s sons. Yalquṭ Reubeni (ed. Amsterdam 1700) 148A from a
“midrash”: Balaam the wicked had his strength from two letters מי; these were his two sons Mamre and Yohani (whose names begin
with מ or י);
this corresponds in holiness to Moses and Joshua (whose names also begin with מ and י).
— The following citations everywhere offer additional supporting texts.
b. Yalquṭ Simeoni on Exodus 2:23; 1 § 168
(55B) from the “Chronicle of Moses”: When pharaoh had become king over Egypt,
his heart became hard against all the inhabitants of his land, and even the
house of Jacob he did not spare, according to the counsel of Balaam, the
sorcerer, and his two sons; for they were the king’s counselors in those days.
‖ Yalquṭ Reubeni 146C from ציוני:
“His two knaves (youths) were with him” (Num 22:22). Who were they? Our
teachers of blessed memory said, “They were Junnos and Jumbros, scribes of
pharaoh.” Some say, “They were his (Balaam’s) sons.”
c. Targum Yerušalmi I Exodus 1:15: “When
pharaoh slept, he saw in his dream, and lo, the whole land of Egypt was in a
pan on a scale and a young lamb was in the other pan on the scale; and the
scale tilted to the side of the lamb. Immediately he sent for and called all
the sorcerers of Egypt and told them his dream. Immediately Jannes and Jambres,
the chiefs of the sorcerers, opened their mouth and said to pharaoh, ‘A son
will be born in the community of the Israelites, by whom the whole land of
Egypt will be destroyed.’ ” (As a result, the order in Exod 1:15f. is then
given.) — The dream is found in a more expansive form also in the Chronicle of
Moses (Beth ha-Midrash 2.1.2); yet
here the interpretation and advice are not given by Jannes and Jambres, but
rather by “one of the princes”; see the passage also in Yalquṭ Simeoni on
Exodus 1:15, 1 § 164 (53C); here, though, the advice comes from one of the
royal eunuchs.
d. Chronicle of Moses (Beth ha-Midrash 2.3.21): In the third year of the birth of Moses,
pharaoh sat at the table, and his wife sat at his right hand and his daughter
Bithiah at his left; yet before him sat his princes (chiefs) and his ministers.
And the boy (Moses) sat with Bithiah, the king’s daughter; and the boy
stretched out his hand and took the crown from the king’s head and set it on
his own head. And the king was disquieted about this together with his princes,
and they marveled among themselves. Then Balaam, the sorcerer, one of the king’s
princes and counselors, answered and said, “Remember, my lord king, the dream
that you dreamed and that your servant interpreted for you! Do you not know
that this boy belongs to the children of the Hebrews and that the spirit of God
is in him and that he has acted from his wisdom? And he is the one who will
destroy Egypt; and now let the king decree immediately that his head be taken
off!” And the word was good in the king’s eyes and those of his friends. Then
God—blessed be He!—sent the angel Gabriel, and he resembled one of the king’s
princes and his friends (i.e., he had taken on his form and appearance). He
said to him, “My lord king, this word is not good to kill a person of innocent
blood; for the boy has no thought. And now command that a gem be set before him
and a glowing coal. If he stretches out his hand and takes the gem, it is
certain that he is a child of thought and of death, and we will carry out the
sentence; but if he stretches out his hand and takes the coal, it is certain
that there is no thought in him, and let him remain exempt from punishment.”
And all his wise men saw this and said, “This word is good!” Then a gem and a
coal were brought before him; and the boy stretched out his hand to take the
stone. Then the angel pushed his hand so that he took the coal, and he led it
to his face and touched it with his lips and the tip of his tongue, and (as a
result) he had a sluggish mouth and a sluggish tongue, and because of this he
was saved. — This legend is also found in Exod. Rab. 1 (67B), except that
instead of the angel Gabriel, Jethro is the saving counselor; see the passage
at § Luke 1:19 A, #4, n. g, first
third. See also Josephus, Ant. 2.9.7.
e. Chronicle of Moses (Beth ha-Midrash 2.5.22): When Balaam saw that his counsel was not
followed and that it did not come about that the children of Israel would be
destroyed according to the evil plan that he had thought of, he left Egypt and
went to king Niqanos together with his two sons Jannes and Mamres (ממריס); yet it was king Niqanos, king of Edom
(which in the wider course of the narrative is identified with Cush, i.e.,
Ethiopia). — It is then further reported that king Niqanos waged war in the
time with the sons of the east and that he entrusted Balaam with administering
his country during his absence. Yet the latter lures the Ethiopians to fall
away from Niqanos and makes himself king and proclaims his sons as princes of
the land. At his return Niqanos is refused entry into his capital city; so he
finds himself forced to besiege it. This has already lasted for nine years when
the king dies. In the meantime, Moses enlisted himself in his army. The great
popularity that he soon enjoyed with everyone in the company makes him appear
to be worthy to succeed Niqanos. So he is chosen as king. His wisdom soon
succeeds in conquering the besieged city. Then it says at the conclusion: When
Balaam, the son of Beor, saw that the city was taken, he fled from there in the
air by all kinds of magical arts, he and his sons, and they fled to Egypt to
pharaoh. — The text in Yalquṭ Simeoni 1 § 168 (55B) is taken from a different
recension; the king of Ethiopia is here called קוקנוס.
f. Yalquṭ Simeoni on Exodus 5:1, 1 § 176
(57D): “Then Moses and Aaron went” (Exod 5:1). It happened when they came to
the gate of the royal palace, behold, there were there two young lions with
iron chains put on them, and no one could go out or in before them, except when
the king commanded that the guards go out and remove the young lions by their
magic spells. Then he was brought in. And Moses quickly swung the staff over
the lions and let them loose, and so they came into the royal palace, and the
lions went with them with great joy, as a dog rejoices over its master when he
comes from the field. When pharaoh saw this, he was astounded and was very
afraid of the men, for their appearance was like the appearance of sons of God
(cf. Dan 3:25). Then the king said to them, “What do you want?” They answered
him, “Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us to you to say, ‘Let my people
go so that they may serve me’ ” (cf. Exod 5:1). And he was very afraid of
them and said to them, “Go for today and come tomorrow!” And they did according
to the king’s word. When they had gone away, the king called for Balaam, the
soothsayer, and his sons Janos and Jambrinos ינוס וימברינוס, the sorcerers. ‖ Targum Yerušalmi I Exodus 7:11: “Then pharaoh
called the wise men and the sorcerers. They too, Jannes and Jambres, the
sorcerers in Egypt, did the same by the magic spells of their sorcery.” ‖
Babylonian Talmud Menaḥot 85A: Yuhna and Mamre said to Moses (when they were
just about to turn their staffs into snakes; Exod 7:11f.), “You want to bring
straw to Hafaraim?” Moses answered them, “People say, ‘To a vegetable city,
bring vegetables’ ” (for in a place that is famous for cultivating vegetables,
most of the time people demand vegetables). — In the parallel passage Exod.
Rab. 9 (73C), the names of the sorcerers are Yuhani and Mamre. ‖ See further
Tanḥ. כי
תשא in, n. h.
g. Yalquṭ Reubeni on Exodus 7:11 (81B) from
Zohar: “When they (the Egyptian sorcerers) saw the signs and wonders that were
done by Moses in Egypt, they came later to Moses and wanted to become
proselytes. God said to Moses, ‘Do not take them!’ Yet Moses took them by
himself (i.e., unauthorized). (This is referred to by the words:) ‘And a large
mix went up with them’ (Exod 12:38): these were the scribes of the Egyptians,
at the head of whom were Junnos and Jumbros יונוס ויומברוס.” ‖ See further Yalquṭ Reubeni 106D in, n. h.
h. Tanḥuma כי תשא
115B: “When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain”
(Exod 32:1). The sixth hour (= 12 noon) had come, and then 4,000 men assembled
who had gone up with Israel (from Egypt; this refers to the masses that are
called “large mix” in Exod 12:38 and “mob” in Num 11:4); and among them there
were two scribes of Egypt named Junnos and Jumbros, who had performed all those
magical arts before pharaoh; as it says, “And they too, the scribes of Egypt,
did so by their secret arts” (Exod 7:11). They all gathered around Aaron and
said, “Arise, make us a god!” ‖ Yalquṭ Reubeni on Exodus 32:11 (106D) from
Tiqqunim: What reason did the godless have to make the calf? Yet in fact these
were only pharaoh’s sorcerers Junnos and Jumbros, of whom it says, “And they
did so too, the scribes, by their secret arts” (Exod 7:11). Yet when they saw
that there was nothing actual in them (their magical works), they turned to (?)
the people of Moses and accepted the covenant of circumcision.… And when they
bore jealousy (hostility) in their heart, they said, “Arise, make us a god that
may come before us, as he came before you!”
i. Yalquṭ Reubeni on Exodus 32:28 (108C)
from Zohar: “The children of Levi acted according to the word of Moses, and on
that day ‘about’ 3,000 men fell” (Exod 32:28). How so? Is there in a
calculation a less (an approximation), as when someone says an “approximate”
number? (What is כְּ
= “about” or “like” before 3,000 supposed to mean?) This refers only to Junnos
and Jumbros, who were tantamount to 3,000 men.
j. Yalquṭ Simeoni on Exodus 14:27, 1 § 235
(73C) from midrash אבכיר:
The Egyptians conducted their sorcery and rose from the sea. Then the sea said,
“A deposit that God has entrusted to me, how can I let it go?” Immediately the
waters ran after every single Egyptian and cast them into the sea.… Yet there
were two sorcerers among the Egyptians, Yohani and Mamre. They had by sorcery
made themselves wings and flew in the air and hovered in the height of the
world. Then (the angel) Gabriel said (before God), “In the fullness of your
grandeur you tear down your adversaries” (Exod 15:7). Immediately God said to
Michael, “Arise, carry out the judgment against them!” Then Michael seized them
by the crest of their head and destroyed them over the water; this is what “You
split the sea by your might, you have shattered the heads of the dragons over
the water” (Ps 74:13) means. ‖ Yalquṭ Reubeni on Exodus 15:7 (89A) from חכם הרזים: “In the fullness of your grandeur you
tear down your adversaries; you send out your blaze, it consumes them like
stubble” (Exod 15:7). Yohani and Mamre were two brothers (as sons of Balaam)
and they were skilled in sorcery; and they performed magic for themselves and
flew in the air. Michael and Gabriel saw them, but they did not have power over
them. Immediately they called out and said, “Lord of the world, they are those
who have enslaved your children, in a sense you are obliged by what is said, ‘In
the fullness of your grandeur you tear down your adversaries’ (Exod 15:7), and
you do not carry out judgment against them!” Immediately God said to the prince
of the face (one of the throne angels), “Go down and exact revenge on them!”
Then he went down and brought them low; as it says, “You blew with your breath,
then the sea covered them” (Exod 15:10). ‖ Midrash Vajjoschaʿ on Exodus 15:10 (Beth ha-Midrash 1.52.26): “You blew with
your breath” (Exod 15:10). The scholars said, “When the Egyptians perished in
the sea, there were among them two sorcerers, whose names were Yohani and
Mamre. They said to pharaoh, ‘If this happens by the hand of God, we can do
nothing against it; but if it happens by the hand of an angel, we will be able
to pour them into it’ (cf. Exod 14:27). Immediately they performed their
sorcery and plunged them (the angels) into the sea. Then the angels said, ‘Help
us (so the text is cited), God, for the waters come to the soul!’ (Ps 69:2).
Yet you brought them low by your word in glorious waters. Therefore, it says,
‘You blew with your breath: then the sea covered them; they sank like lead in
the glorious waters’ (Exod 15:10).” (Hermann L. Strack and Paul
Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash,
ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino;
Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2021], 3:767-72)
