Chronological timeline of texts tagged with Jannes and Jambres
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Jannes and Jambres are the names given to the originally anonymous Egyptian magicians connected with Pharaoh and infamous for opposing Moses. These names are absent from the Hebrew Bible, yet they emerge within later traditions found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, Rabbinic writings, and classical literature. This phenomenon highlights how later traditions were willing to create and/or absorb details not found in the Hebrew Bible.
Note: Dates shown in this timeline are approximate and based on scholarly estimates.
Back to Tag100–80 BCE
CD 5:17
Dead Sea Scrolls
13 they speak against them. All of them are kindlers of fire and lighters of brands; webs of 14 a spider are their webs, and eggs of vipers are their eggs. Whoever comes near them 15 will not be held innocent; the more he does so, the guiltier he is, unless he was forced. For from of old 16 God visited their works, and his anger burned against their deeds, for it is not a people of understanding. 17 They are a nation lacking counsel, because there is no understanding in them. For in ancient times there arose 18 Moses and Aaron by the hand of the Prince of Lights, and Belial raised up Jannes and 19 his brother in his cunning, when Israel was saved the first time.
77 CE
There is also a marvellous coincidence, in the fact that the two arts—medicine, I mean, and magic—were developed simultaneously: medicine by the writings of Hippocrates, and magic by the works of Democritus, about the period of tile Peloponnesian War, which was waged in Greece in the year of the City of Rome 300. 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.
70–80 CE
2 Timothy 3:8
New Testament
6 For some of these insinuate themselves into households and captivate weak women who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. 7 Such women are always seeking instruction, yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people—who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith—also oppose the truth. 9 But they will not go much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.
300–1200 CE
Pseudo Jonathan Exodus 1:15
Targum
15 And Pharaoh said that while he slept, he saw in his dream that all the land of Egypt was placed on one balance of a weighing scale, and a lamb, the young of a ewe, on the other balance of the weighing scale; and the balance of the weighing scale on which the lamb was placed weighed down. Immediately he sent and summoned all the magicians of Egypt and told them his dream. Immediately Jannes and Jambres, the chief magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh: 'A son is to be born in the assembly of Israel, through whom all the land of Egypt is destined to be destroyed.'
450–550 CE
Menachot 85a
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.