03_Wilson_201_221_201_221 10/07/15 12:41 Pagina 219 219 MATTHEW, PHILO, AND MERCY FOR ANIMALS (MATT 12,9-14) 219 issue under discussion” but “[a]s a guide to Sabbath observance could result in widely divergent practice”. Therefore, not unlike the Golden Rule (7,12), the principles illustrated in 12,7.12 leave each individual a fair amount of discretion to determine what the crite- rion of doing “good” requires in a given situation 65. What is being illustrated, then, is both an interpretation of practice as well as a way of reasoning about practice in general. As Repschinski puts it, in this passage “Matthew makes Jesus the teacher of the Law”, who not only “can expose the Pharisaic teaching as illogical and hypo- critical”, but also “propose an interpretation of the Law that is better argued and more humanely applied”, thereby showing “the way to the greater righteousness (5:17)” 66. One final area of comparison between the two authors has to do with the role assigned in this teaching/learning process to the ani- mal world. Specifically, it is possible to discern a difference be- tween the two with respect to assumptions that they make about the basic nature of animals and their status in the order of creation. One way to gain some insight in this regard is by comparing Matt 12,12a with similarly worded passages elsewhere in the Gospel. Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more (ma/llon diafe,rete) than they? (Matt 6,26) Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one (e[n) of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father … So do not fear; you are more valuable (diafe,rete) than many sparrows. (Matt 10,29-31) How much more valuable (po,sw| … diafe,rei) is a human being than a sheep. (Matt 12,12a) Matt 10,29-31 (cf. Luke 12,6-7) envisions a scenario in which a sparrow is brought down by the hunter’s snare and subsequently sold in the marketplace (cf. Amos 3,5; Gen. Rab. 79.6). This, says Jesus, is something that does not happen a;neu tou/ patro,j, that is, apart from divine knowledge and consent (cf. Job 38,41; Ps 147,9). Here, as in Matt 6,26 (cf. Luke 12,24), Jesus’ comments are meant 65 R.T. FRANCE, The Gospel of Matthew (NICNT; Grand Rapids, MI 2007) 465. 66 REPSCHINSKI, Controversy Stories, 115.