2 Timothy 3:8,9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now as Jannes and Jambres Some ancient writers speak of these persons as the chief of Pharaoh's magicians, whose names, though not recorded by Moses, yet being handed down by tradition, are preserved in Jonathan's Chaldee Paraphrase on Exodus 7:11; withstood Moses We learn from Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22, that Pharaoh's magicians imitated three of Moses's miracles by their enchantments; that is, by repeating a form of words known only to themselves, in which they invoked certain demons, and, as they fancied, constrained them to do the things desired. By thus pretending to work miracles equal to those of Moses, they resisted him in his attempts to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. So these also resist the truth That is, the true and genuine gospel; namely, as he seems to mean, by false miracles. In the early ages of Christianity the heretical teachers are said to have been much addicted to the study of magic, and that some of the Gnostics pretended to have the secret books of Zoroaster. Clemens. Alexand. Strom., lib. 5. p. 104. And we know that in later times the monks and friars have been great pretenders to miracles. Hence (2Ti 3:13) they are called γοητες, magicians. Men of corrupt minds Impure notions and wicked inclinations; reprobate, αδοκιμοι, disapproved, with respect to the faith And worthy of being rejected as enemies to it. Or, as some render the clause void of judgment as to the faith; quite ignorant, as well as careless, of true spiritual religion. But they shall proceed no further Or, as Doddridge renders the clause, they shall not proceed much further, in these artifices, and in gaining proselytes; for their folly shall be made manifest unto all Ανοια, their want of understanding. The apostle might justly call the errors of the authors of the apostacy, and the base arts by which they established their authority, foolishness, because, though they thought themselves superlatively wise in the methods which they devised for obtaining power and wealth, their doctrines and practices were as void of reason as are the imaginations and actions of fools. As theirs also was To the Israelites, and even to the Egyptians themselves. That is, “the vile arts by which the corrupters of Christianity established their errors being discovered, their folly and wickedness shall be very plain to the people, even as the folly and wickedness of Pharaoh's magicians were made plain to the Israelites, by the stop which God put to their enchantments. And thus, the truth being set in a more clear light, the wisdom and righteousness of God, in permitting these corruptions to take place for a while, will be demonstrated.” They who are acquainted with the history of the ancient heretics, and of the Romish Church, and of the Reformation, need not be informed how exactly this whole prophecy hath been fulfilled.