We don’t have to sweep tricky phrases from Scripture under the carpet, says Christopher Ash. In many cases Bible scholarship can help us make sense of them.
‘Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth…’ (2 Tim. 3:8) You are preparing to preach, or to lead a study, on 2 Timothy 3, when you come across Jannes and Jambres. Who are they? When and why did they oppose Moses? How is their opposition to Moses similar to (‘just as’) what the false teachers are doing in first-century Ephesus?
You search your Bible and can’t find them anywhere. You try a different translation and still can’t find them. You try varying the spelling – still no joy. Ah well, you say to yourself, maybe I’ll just skim over that verse and hope nobody notices. But all the time you have this nagging feeling you shouldn’t do that.
Christopher Ash: how can we age well?
I am in my (very) early seventies. I have just written a book about following Jesus in your fifties and …