ACC ~ 2 Timothy 3 v8

AN UNKNOWN TRADITION. CHRYSOSTOM: Who are these? The magicians in the time of Moses. But how is it their names are nowhere else introduced? Either they were handed down by tradition or it is probable that Paul knew them by inspiration. HOMILIES ON 2 TIMOTHY 8.

PAUL’S SOURCE UNKNOWN. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: A great deal of foolishness has been written about how Paul could have known the names of these two men who resisted Moses. Particularly absurd is the notion that he had access to some information or writing now lost to us. COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY.

FROM UNWRITTEN TRADITION? THEODORET OF CYR: Paul takes the story of Jannes and Jambres not from holy Scripture but from an unwritten Jewish tradition. INTERPRETATION OF THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

THE PRIDE OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. AUGUSTINE: Do they not resist this truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobates concerning the faith, who respond and speak iniquity, saying, “We have it from God that we are men but from our own selves that we are just”? What are you [Pelagians] saying? You deceive your own selves, not protecting but jettisoning free will, from the height of haughtiness through empty expanses of presumption into the depths of a drowning deep in the sea. Without doubt it is your pronouncement that man of himself does justice. This is the height of your presumption. TRACTATES ON JOHN 81.2.

SACRILEGE, VICE AND CRIME. FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE: The sins of the wicked come about in three ways. Either they are bound up with sacrileges or vices or crimes. For they commit sacrilege when they do not believe rightly concerning God and depart from the true faith either because of fear of temporal misfortunes or desire for temporal advantages or by blindness or perversity of heart alone. They sin by vice when unrestrained or obscene in themselves; they live in a shameful fashion. Then they sin by crimes when they cruelly harm others, either by damages or some kind of oppression. The blessed apostle calls both of them reprobate whether sinning capitally in faith or in works, saying about those who contradict the true faith, “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so they also oppose the truth, people of depraved mind, unqualified in the faith.” LETTER TO SCARILA 10.37.

2 Tim