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Exodus never names Pharaoh's magicians. The historian Pliny refers to one of them as Jannes, referring to a tradition also found in Rabbinic texts such as tractate Menachot which names them Yohana and Mamre, who taunt Moses.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pliny Natural History 30.2
Classical
There is another sect, also, of adepts in the magic art, who derive their origin from Moses, Jannes, and Lotapea, Jews by birth, but many thousand years posterior to Zoroaster: and as much more recent, again, is the branch of magic cultivated in Cyprus. In the time, too, of Alexander the Great, this profession received no small accession to its credit from the influence of a second Osthanes, who had the honour of accompanying that prince in his expeditions, and who, evidently, beyond all doubt, travelled over every part of the world.
Date: 77 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Menachot 85a
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
§ The mishna states: And all meal offerings come only from the optimal produce. One of the places the mishna mentions as having good-quality produce is Aforayim. The superior quality of its produce was so well known that Aforayim was used as an example in colloquial aphorisms. In Moses and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh, Aaron cast his staff to the ground, whereupon it turned into a serpent. Pharaoh’s necromancers then duplicated the feat using their incantations, only to then be confounded when Aaron’s staff swallowed up all of theirs (see Exodus 7:10–12). The Gemara relates the conversation that took place: Pharaoh’s two leading necromancers, Yoḥana and Mamre, said to Moses: Are you are bringing straw to Afarayim? Performing necromancy in Egypt, the world leader in sorcery, is like bringing straw to Afarayim, which is rich in the finest grains. Moses said to them: It is as people say: To a city rich in herbs, take herbs. If you want to guarantee that people will appreciate your merchandise, bring it to a place where they are familiar with it.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... The conviction that Moses was a magician was wide-spread in antiquity. Pliny the Elder even defines a school of magic related to Moses, namely Jannes, Lotapes and “the” Jews. [...] Nat. 30.2.11 (Pliny, Natural History, W. H. S. Jones, LCL); this passage also mentions Jannes and Lotapes. In regard to Pliny, see, Stephen Gero, “The Enigma of the Magician Lotapes (Pliny, Nat. 30.11),” JStJ 27 (1996) 304-323; Charles C. Torrey, “The Magic of ‘Lotapes,’” JBL 68 (1949) 325-327. In midrash, the chief magicians accompanying Pharaoh are called Yoḥaney and Mamre (Exod. Rab. 9:6; compare b. Menaḥ 85a); Pharaoh’s magicians were among the mixed multitude joining the Israelites (Tanḥ, printed edition, Ki Tissa 19); thus, Egyptian magic followed the Israelites during the Exodus. ...”
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