What does 2 Timothy 3:8 mean?
Jannes and Jambres are typically understood as characters from the Exodus, as men who fought against Moses when he sought to free the Jewish people from Egypt. Though not explicitly mentioned in Scripture, these two names were traditionally associated with two of Pharaoh's magicians who opposed Moses (Exodus 7:11–12, 22; 8:7, 18). These men were known for three things.First, they opposed the truth. They stood against the command God had given through Moses to let the Jewish people go from slavery.
Second, these men were spiritually and intellectually depraved. They did not know God, did not seek God, and did not believe His words.
Third, these men's teachings earned them only rejection by God. Paul's words here resemble his writing in Colossians 2:18–19: "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head." Such people, in Ephesus and Colossae, did not truly know God despite their claims to be spiritual leaders.