JANNES AND JAMBRES eIawijs Kal prifjs), two of the Egyptian magicians who at tempted by their enchantments (n+th, occulter artes, Gesenius) to counteract the influence on Pharaoh's mind of the miracles wrought hy Moses. Their names occur nowhere in the Hebrew Scrip tures, and only once in the N. T. (2 Tim. iii. 8). The Apostle Paul became acquainted with them, most probably, from an ancient Jewish tradition, or, as Theodoret expresses it, from the unwritten teaching of the Jews' (Tijs dlypacb01.1 T631, '10118aiWP 3ffiacrimMas). They are found frequently in the Talmudical and Rabbinical writings, but with some variations. Thus, for Jannes we meet with D4)4, Nrro, 4)nr, nyo. Of these, the three last are forms of the Hebrew WTI', which has led to the supposition that 'Iapvijs is a contracted form of the Greek 'I wcipp27s. Some critics consider that these names were of Egyptian origin, and, in that case, the Jewish writers must have been misled by a similarity of sound to adopt the forms above mentioned. For Jambres we find ti-Inn, c4-1zn4, DrInvo, and in the Shalsheleth Hakka bala the two names are given IR'0111nN1 e., Johannes and Ambrosius ! The Targum of Jonathan inserts them in Exod. vii. 1. The same writer also gives as a reason for Pharaoh's edict for the destruction of the Israelitish male children, that this monarch had a dream in which the land of Eg,ypt appeared in one scale and a lamb in another ; that on awakening he sought for its in terpretation from his wise men ; whereupon Jannes and Jambres (a+-cnn DT) said—` A son is to be born in the congregation of Israel who will desolate the whole land of Egypt.' Several of the Jewish
writers speak of Jannes and Jambres as the two sons of Balaam, and assert that they were the youths MI% servants, A. V.) who went with him to the king of Moab (Nurn. xxii. 22). The Pytha gorean philosopher Numenius mentions these per SODS in a passage preserved by Eusebius Evang. ix. S), and by Origen (c. Cels. p. r98.
ed. Spencer) ; also Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxx. There was an ancient apocryphal writing entitled 2ezzenes and illambres, which is referred to by Ori gen (in .ilfaSt. Comment. sec. 117 ; Opera, v. 29), and by Ambrosiaster, or Hilary the Deacon : it was condemned by Pope Gelasius (Wetstenii Nov. Test. Craw. ii. 362; Buxtorf, Lex. Taint. Rabb. col. 945 ; Lightfoot's Sermon on yannes and yambres ; I-Vorks, vii. 89; Erubhin, or Miscellanies, ch. xxiv. ; Works, iv. 33 ; Lardner's Credibility, pt. ii., ch. 35 ; Works, vii. 38i.)—J. E. R. [Mr. R. S. Poole (Smith's Dictthnary 928) traces Jannes to the Egyptian Alin, pronounced fan, which he shews to have been a proper name in use among the Egyptians. This supports the belief that the names given by Paul are the real names of the parties referred to. For Jambres, however, or, as it is in some codices, Mambres, no satisfac ' tory Egyptian equivalent has been found ; all that can be said is that the termination is the Grecised form of Ra, sun,' a frequent ending of compound words in Egyptian, as ex. gr. Men-kaw-ra, Vpns..]