Mark 12 : 28

Greek uses the aorist participle προσελθὼν ('having come up'), Latin the finite preterite accessit, and the Syriac prefixes a finite verb ܘܩܪܒ to the conjunction; the Syriac waw-prefixed verb collapses conjunction and participle into a single finite clause, a routine Syriac narrative idiom differing syntactically from the Greek circumstantial participle.

Greek and Latin render the partitive with article + genitive plural (τῶν γραμματέων / de scribis, 'of the scribes'), whereas the Syriac uses ܡܢ + the morphologically singular ܣܦܪܐ ('from the scribe[s]'), the Syriac emphatic form here functioning collectively rather than as a true numerical singular.

Greek and Syriac employ a participial/coordinated finite verb of hearing (ἀκούσας / ܘܫܡܥ), while the Vulgate introduces a relative clause qui audierat with a pluperfect, recasting the circumstantial participle as a subordinate relative and shifting the temporal aspect to anterior.

Greek uses the present participle in the genitive συζητούντων agreeing with αὐτῶν (genitive absolute style), Latin the accusative participle conquirentes, and the Syriac a relative clause ܕܕܪܫܝܢ ('that they were disputing'); the Syriac root d-r-sh carries a nuance of disputation/study, equivalent in sense to συζητέω.

Greek and Syriac place the indirect object after the verb (αὐτοῖς / ܠܗܘܢ), while the Vulgate fronts illis before responderit, a stylistic Latin reordering with no semantic effect.

The Peshitta supplies an explicit direct object ܦܬܓܡܐ ('a word/answer') as the thing answered, an idiomatic Syriac amplification absent from both the Greek and Latin, which leave the object of ἀπεκρίθη / responderit implicit.

Greek ἐστὶν and Latin esset express the copula explicitly (the Latin subjunctive marking indirect interrogation), whereas the Syriac encloses the copular pronoun within ܐܝܢܘ (ܐܝܢܐ + ܗܘ, 'which is it'), a fused interrogative-plus-enclitic that subsumes the verb 'to be'.

All three attest 'commandment' (ἐντολή / ܦܘܩܕܢܐ / mandatum), but the Vulgate postpones mandatum to clause-final position after primum omnium, inverting the Greek and Syriac order in which the noun precedes its qualifiers.