Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Timothy 3:1-9, Terrible times, homes entered, and Jannes and Jambres
Paul warns that the last days will bring terrible times and people who love themselves, money and pleasure, having a form of godliness but denying its power; some worm their way into homes and win over gullible women, opposing the truth as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses.
2 Timothy 3:1-9, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul warns Timothy that the last days will bring hard times, and he lists the vices of people who love themselves, money and pleasure more than God while keeping an outward show of religion. Timothy is to avoid them. Some of these teachers slip into homes and gain influence over women weighed down by sin who keep learning but never reach the truth, and Paul compares them to Jannes and Jambres, who opposed Moses and were exposed. How far Paul speaks of particular women here, and why they were open to these teachers, is read differently.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/antichrist\/","n":"Antichrist and the lawless one","s":"Daniel's king who exalts himself above every god and defiles the sanctuary became a pattern Jews saw again in Antiochus, Pompey and Caligula. Paul's man of lawlessness, who sets himself up in God's temple claiming to be God, belongs to that line.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sages-and-philosophers\/","n":"Philosophers and their schools","s":"Stoics, Epicureans and other schools taught a whole way of life in lecture halls and marketplaces. A traveling teacher with a message about God would be heard, and judged, as one more philosopher.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/women-in-public\/","n":"Women in public","s":"Custom kept unrelated men and women apart in public. Teachers warned men against talking much with women, a stranger was not to speak with a woman alone, and a woman's word counted for little in court. Most women were also taught far less than men, so a call for women to learn stood out.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/magic-and-sorcery\/","n":"Magic and sorcery","s":"Spells, charms and incantations were sold and used across the ancient world, by Jews as well as pagans, and many feared the evil eye. People told a sorcerer, who worked in secret and for pay, from a holy man who acted openly.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/genealogies\/","n":"Family trees, myths and genealogies","s":"Lists of ancestors that proved who you were: a true Israelite, a priest, an heir of David. Matthew opens with one. Some teachers also spun stories and family trees out of the Bible's lists, which 1 Timothy calls myths and endless genealogies.","r":""}
Judaism pictured the end as a time of turmoil and apostasy, and Paul counts his own time in the last days (Keener and his notes). Most women in the traditional Greek culture of Ephesus kept out of public life, so these teachers went into homes, and widows often owned theirs (Keener and his notes). Juvenal mocked women's readiness to change religions, and women took up cults such as those of Isis and Serapis more readily than men (Keener); Ephesus had a temple of Serapis (the cultural backgrounds article on Ephesus). The sources read the women differently: lesser education (Keener and his notes, who stress particular women, not all) or guilt from past sins (the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Jewish tradition named Pharaoh's magicians Jannes and Jambres (Keener; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles; Wright), a book bore their names (the dictionary), and the Damascus Document, as Heiser quotes Elgvin, says "Belial, with his cunning, raised up Jannes and his brothers". Wright and Bird wonder whether Paul alludes to the magic of Ephesus, which Arnold calls "a center of magical practices". Wright ties their failure to Exodus 7:12, where their serpents were swallowed.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 2 Timothy 3:1-13, and on 2 Timothy 3:1, 3:6, 3:7 and 3:8
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 3:6 and 3:8, and article Ephesus During the Time of Paul
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on 2 Timothy 3:6 and 3:8
- CSB Study Bible, notes on 2 Timothy 3:6 and 3:8
- Michael S. Heiser, Reversing Hermon, ch. 10, The Sin of the Watchers, the Nephilim, and the Antichrist, section Second Temple Jewish Demonology
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 23, The Pastoral Epistles, The Argument of 2 Timothy, section 5
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 2 Timothy 3:1-9
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Jannes and Jambres
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 1, Magic and Divination, The Burning of the Magical Books in Ephesus: Acts 19
