God’s Word for You
2 Timothy 3:8-9 Jannes and Jambres
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, July 3, 2026
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. They are men who are corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for just as it was with those two men, their folly will be plain to all.
There are certain details about Old Testament events that are known from the New Testament account. A quotation from the ancient patriarch Enoch appears in Jude (Jude 1:14-15). The precise number of people on Noah’s ark is confirmed by Peter (1 Peter 3:20). And here we see that the magicians of Pharaoh (probably Pharaoh Thutmose III) were named Jannes and Jambres. Those names are well-preserved in Jewish tradition, but they don’t appear in the Bible except for this verse. Since the Holy Spirit led Paul to record these names, we can say that one of two things has taken place. “Either they were handed down by tradition, or it is probable that Paul knew them by inspiration.” If the names were known to Paul simply on account of a tradition, his use of the names is not “a blanket endorsement of tradition.”
These were the men who reproduced some of the miracles of Moses before Pharaoh, but they could not reproduce all ten of the plagues, but only two or three of them. According to Moses, they were able to change their staffs into snakes by their secret arts (Exodus 7:11), and they could change the water of the Nile to blood (Exodus 7:22), and yet again they could summon frogs to cover the land (Exodus 8:8). But after that, although they tried, they could not replicate the other plagues the Lord used to strike Egypt (Exodus 8:18), and they even confessed, “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:19).
The point the Apostle is making is that they stood against Moses, just as certain false teachers were standing against Paul. And Paul’s judgment is that these men in his time were “corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding their faith.” The mind, corrupted by sin, had already lost the image of God. But warped by sin and unbelief, it is utterly lawless and can do nothing to please God. When Adam was created, he was made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), which cannot mean that man resembled God in his looks, since God is a spirit (John 4:24). It must mean, rather, that God’s wisdom and righteousness was implanted in man, that would grasp God and reflect him, that is, that man received gifts like the knowledge of God, fear of God, and trust in God. As Paul says in Ephesians 5:9 and Colossians 3:10, the image of God is the knowledge of God, righteousness (that is, holiness), and truth. Augustine summarizes these things with “memory, intellect, and the will of God,” especially to show what was corrupted and lost in the fall into sin, since man lost nearly all of his memory of God (and therefore, hope), nearly all of his intellect that was godly in any way (and therefore faith), and a godly will (which is love). Fallen man is therefore utterly lawless, leprous, and unclean.
Such men as the false teachers and magicians (Jannes and Jambres) and the false teachers of Paul’s day, were such fallen men, and worse. Not holy at all, they were without any knowledge of God’s holy will. So just as those ancient magicians were revealed to be charlatans by their imperfect and defective works, so also today false teachers are unmasked by their imperfect and defective words; they cannot say anything that agrees with the holy Scriptures, and their wicked deeds match their ridiculous and defective words.
The wicked and false teachers, especially those who once knew the word of God, are guilty of a terrible sin. They have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4). They have driven away from their own hearts faith and a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:19). They have turned away from God (Isaiah 1:4), turned their backs on God (Jeremiah 2:27), turned aside from following God (Zephaniah 1:6), abandoned God (Jeremiah 2:13), left the path of faith (Exodus 32:8), denied the Lord (2 Peter 2:1), and they have resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). As Paul says, their minds are “hostile to God” (Romans 8:7).
But let us stop for a moment. For even such men and women, witches and fiends, astrologers and unbelievers of all kinds, may still be brought to fear over their sinfulness, and they might still desire to be forgiven and to be brought within the arms of the church. Is there hope for them? Our Lord Jesus says, yes, yes, yes there is—seventy times seven, yes (Matthew 18:22).
Martin Luther suggested several forms of confession and absolution so that a Christian could come to their pastor and/or shrive themselves (that is, confess and be forgiven with or without a pastor present). He suggested, among longer forms, this short form:
“Reverend sir, give me comfort for my soul.”
(What do you desire?)
“Miserable sinner that I am, I confess and lament to you before God that I am a sinful and weak creature. I do not keep God’s commandments. I do not really believe the gospel; I do nothing good; I cannot bear ill. Especially I committed (this or that) which burdens my conscience. I therefore ask that you, in God’s place, would declare to me that my sins are forgiven, and comfort me with the word of God.”
The pastor must then forgive the repentant sinner. He might say, “As you believe, so let it be done to you” (Matthew 8:13), but must say something along these lines: “I by the command of Jesus Christ our Lord, forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace.” It would be wise to make the sign of the cross while speaking the name of the Triune God, which is the formula for baptism (Matthew 28:19).
I am always very pleased when our people come for private confession. All of our hymnals have a version of this confession and absolution, as does the Catechism. But a minister also knows it in his heart and if necessary, he needs no books but only a broken heart that desires the gospel. For if even Jannes and Jambres had repented and had listened to the word of God through Moses and Aaron, they could have been forgiven, and they could have been numbered with the true Israel for all eternity.
May God bring us all to repentance, to a knowledge of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus our Lord, and when our eyes close at last in death, to grant that at once we shall open the eyes of our spirits without a moment’s delay in Paradise, leaving all suffering, pain, doubt, fear, and stain of sin forever behind. Then the poor will eat and be satisfied; they who sought the Lord will praise him, and may their hearts live forever! (Psalm 22:26).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.