Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Ver. 2. Now the names of the twelve, &c.] Their names are registered and had in honour; when the grandees of the earth, those men of renown in their generation, lie either buried in oblivion or wrapped up in the sheet of shame: their memory, haply, is preserved, but stinks in the keeping, as that rich glutton, Luke 16:19,31, who is not so much as named, as poor Lazarus is.
Peter, and Andrew his brother, &c.] They go coupled two and two together. And this first for their own sakes. "Two are better than one," saith Solomon,Ecclesiastes 4:9,12. For, 1. If they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, as that which is stronger shoreth up that which is weaker. 2. If two lie together, then they have heat. When Silas came, Paul burned in spirit, Acts 18:5. Whiles Jehoiada lived Joash was free and forward for God; he was the first that complained of the negligence of his best officers in repairing the temple, 2 Chronicles 24:4,6. While Bradford was alive he kept up Ridley, and so did Latimer, Cranmer, from thinking upon defection. 3. If one prevail, two shall withstand him. The enemy is readiest to assault where none is by to assist; and much of our strength is lost in the loss of a faithful friend; whence Paul so rejoiced that Epaphroditus recovered, Philippians 2:27. For their own mutual help and comfort was it therefore that they were sent out by pairs: ουν τε δυω ερχινεβω, as the poet speaks of his Ulysses and Diomedes, sent to fetch in the Palladium. Secondly, for the sake of others, that the bad might be the sooner set down and convinced, the better confirmed and settled in the truth, since "in the mouth of two or three witnesses," &c. For this it was that God sent forth those noble pairs, Moses and Aaron, Zerubbabel and Joshua, Paul and Barnabas, the two faithful witnesses, Revelation 11:3, Luther and Melancthon, a Zuinglius and Oecolampadius, &c.
a Divisae his operae sed mens fuit unica, pavit Ore
Lutherus oves, flore Melancthon apes.