Matthew 12:12
in Matthew 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How much then is a man of more value than a sheep! Wherefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day.
KJV
How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.
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This verse in Matthew 12
Commentary
16 notes on this verseSecondly, the comparison is made: Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! Incomparably, because all things are for man; for dominion over all things has been entrusted to man, as it says in Genesis (1:26): "Let us make man to our …
This site's exposition
If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath
on Matthew 12:11-13
The sheep in the pit argues from the Pharisees’ own practice. Jesus reasons from that lesser mercy to a greater one, “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep”. The command “Stretch out your hand” asks the man to do what his withered hand could not.
This site's exposition
How much more valuable is a man than a sheep
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite Proverbs 12:10, where a righteous man cares for the life of his animal. They draw the stronger claim for a fellow man. Adam Clarke calls the reply an argument on the hearers' own ground; Theophylact says they would set aside the Sabbath for money.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
Thus He answers their question in such a way as to convict the questioners of covetousness. If ye on the sabbath, saith He, would hasten to lift out a sheep or any other animal that might have fallen into a pit, not for the sake of the animal, but to preserve your own property, how much more ought I to deliver a man who is so much better than a sheep?
(De Cons. Ev. ii. 35.) After this comparison concerning the sheep, He concludes that it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day, saying, Therefore it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.
(Vs. 10 seqq.) But he said to them: Which one of you, having a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. In this way, he solved the proposed question, so as to condemn those who were questioning out of greed. If, he said, on the Sabbath you hurry to rescue a sheep or any other animal that falls into a pit, not because of the animal, but because of your greed, how much more should I free a man, who is much more valuable than a sheep!
"What man is there among you that shall have one sheep, and if this fall into a pit on the Sabbath days, will he not lay hold of it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." Thus, lest they have ground of obstinacy, and of accusing him again of transgression, He convicts them by this example. And do thou mark, I pray thee, how variously and suitably in each case, He introduces His pleas for the breaking of the sabbath. Thus, first, in the case of the blind man, He doth not so much as defend Himself to them, when He made the clay: and yet then also were they blaming Him; but the manner of the creation was enough to indicate the Lord and Owner of the law. Next, in the case of the paralytic, when he carried his bed, and they were finding fault, He defends Himself, now as God, and now as man; as man, when He saith, "If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law should not be broken;" (and He said not "that a man should be profited"); "are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" As God again, when He saith, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." But when blamed for His disciples, He said, "Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, himself and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the show-bread? He brings forward the priests also. And here again; "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? Which of you shall have one sheep?" For He knew their love of wealth, that they were all taken up with it, rather than with love of mankind. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
Otherwise; The man who had the withered hand denotes the human race in its barrenness of good works dried up by the hand which was stretched out to the fruit; (Gen. 3:6.) this was healed by the stretching out of the innocent hand on the Cross. And well is this withered hand said to have been in the Synagogue, for where the gift of knowledge is greater, there is the greater danger of an irrecoverable infliction. The withered hand when it is to be healed is first bid to be stretched out, because the weakness of a barren mind is healed by no means better than by liberality of almsgiving. A man's right hand is affected when he is remiss in giving alms, his left whole when he is attentive to his own interests. But when the Lord comes, the right hand is restored whole as the left, because what he had got together greedily, that he distributes freely.
8 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church2 voices
(ord.) Thus He answers their question with a suitable example, so as to show that they profane the sabbath by works of covetousness who were charging Him with profaning it by works of charity; evil interpreters of the Law, who say that on the sabbath we ought to rest from good deeds, when it is only evil deeds from which we ought to rest. As it is said, Ye shall do no servile work therein, (Lev. 23:3) that is, no sin. Thus in the everlasting rest, we shall rest only from evil, and not from good.
He shows that for love of money and so as not to lose a sheep they would set aside the sabbath, but they could not tolerate that the sabbath be set aside so that a man might be healed. By this He shows that they …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
How much then is a man better than a sheep?....
Hence Christ infers a truth, which, even at first sight, appears very reasonable and good-natured; that it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days; they had asked, Is it lawful to hear? Christ proves it is lawful to do well, and let any one judge whether healing, as Christ healed, was not doing well.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
How much then is a man better than a sheep? - Our Lord’s argument is what is called argumentum ad hominem; they are taken on their own ground, and confuted on their own maxims and conduct. There are many persons who call themselves Christians, who do more for a beast of burden or pleasure than they do for a man for whom Christ died! Many spend that on coursers, spaniels, and hounds, of which multitudes of the followers of Christ are destitute: - but this also shall come to judgment.
The one great subject which stands out prominently in this passage of Scripture is the Sabbath day. It is a subject on which strange opinions prevailed among the Jews in our Lord’s time. The Pharisees had added to the teaching of Scripture about it, and overlaid the true character of the day with the traditions of men. It is a subject on which diverse opinions have often been held in the churches of Christ, and wide differences exist among men at the present time. Let us see what we may learn about it from our Lord’s teaching in these verses.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" (Pr 12:10), and would instinctively rescue it from death or suffering on the sabbath day; how much more his nobler fellow man! But the reasoning, as given in the other two Gospels, is singularly striking: "But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
The one great subject which stands out prominently in this passage of Scripture is the Sabbath day. It is a subject on which strange opinions prevailed among the Jews in our Lord’s time. The Pharisees had added to the teaching of Scripture about it, and overlaid the true character of the day with the traditions of men. It is a subject on which diverse opinions have often been held in the churches of Christ, and wide differences exist among men at the present time. Let us see what we may learn about it from our Lord’s teaching in these verses. Let us learn in the first place, from this passage that our Lord Jesus Christ does not do away with the observance of a weekly Sabbath day, he neither does so here nor elsewhere in the four Gospels. We often find his opinion expressed about Jewish errors on the subject of the Sabbath; but we do not find a word to teach us that his disciples were not to keep a Sabbath at all. It is of much importance to observe this. The mistakes that have arisen from a superficial consideration of our Lord’s sayings on the Sabbath question are neither few nor small; thousands have rushed to the hasty conclusion that Christians have nothing to do with the fourth commandment, and that it is no more binding on us than the Mosaic law about sacrifices. There is nothing in the New Testament to justify any such conclusion. The plain truth is that our Lord did not abolish the law of the weekly Sabbath: he only freed it from incorrect interpretations, and purified it from man made additions. He did not tear out of the decalogue the fourth commandment: he only stripped off the miserable traditions with which the Pharisees had incrusted the day, and by which they had made it not a blessing but a burden. He left the fourth commandment where he found it, a part of the eternal law of God, of which no jot or tittle , was ever to pass away.
How the passage was read
On Matthew 12:1-14On Matthew 12:1-14
What the Pharisees were objecting to
The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, on which the Torah forbids work (Exodus 20:8–11). By Jesus' day the oral tradition had worked that command out into detailed categories of forbidden labor, later written down in the Mishnah (the first great code of Jewish oral law, compiled about AD 200) as thirty-nine categories, reaping and threshing among them (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2). Observant Jews keep these categories to this day.
So the disciples' act reads differently on each side. Plucking a neighbor's standing grain by hand was expressly permitted by the Law itself (Deuteronomy 23:25); this was never about stealing. But in the tradition's categories, plucking counted as reaping, and rubbing the heads as threshing: work, on the day work is forbidden. That is the collision in the scene, and it is why Jesus answers from Scripture's own precedents (David and the showbread, the priests in the Temple) and from who He is: “the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 (the thirty-nine categories) · Deuteronomy 23:25 (plucking permitted) · Exodus 20:8–11 (the command itself)
The words behind it
11 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| πόσῳ | poso | How much | G4214 → | 27 times |
| οὖν | oun | therefore | G3767 → | 497 times |
| διαφέρει | diapherei | is more valuable | G1308 → | 13 times |
| ἄνθρωπος | anthropos | a man | G444 → | 549 times |
| προβάτου; | probatou | than a sheep? | G4263 → | 39 times |
| ὥστε | hoste | Therefore | G5620 → | 83 times |
| ἔξεστιν | exestin | it is lawful | G1832 → | 31 times |
| τοῖς | tois | on the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| σάββασιν | sabbasin | Sabbaths | G4521 → | 68 times |
| καλῶς | kalos | good | G2573 → | |
| ποιεῖν.¶ | poiein | to do. | G4160 → | 569 times |
πόσῳHow much
posoG4214 →27 times
οὖνtherefore
ounG3767 →497 times
διαφέρειis more valuable
diaphereiG1308 →13 times
ἄνθρωποςa man
anthroposG444 →549 times
προβάτου;than a sheep?
probatouG4263 →39 times
ὥστεTherefore
hosteG5620 →83 times
ἔξεστινit is lawful
exestinG1832 →31 times
τοῖςon the
toisG3588 →19766 times
σάββασινSabbaths
sabbasinG4521 →68 times
καλῶςgood
kalosG2573 →
ποιεῖν.¶to do.
poieinG4160 →569 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 6:26Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
it leads to
- Psalms 147:9
He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 38:41
Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 145:15–16
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Matthew 10:29–31
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
- Luke 12:24–32
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!
- Psalms 147:9
Through
Luke 12:24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storehouse or barn; yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds!
it leads to
- Luke 12:7
And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
- Matthew 10:31
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
- Luke 12:7
Through
Mark 3:4And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.
it leads to
- Luke 6:9
Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
- Luke 6:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies24
On this verse
About Matthew
This page draws on 14 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Glossa Ordinaria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 40; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Rabanus Maurus, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.