Mark 5 : 23

Greek παρακαλεῖ is a vivid historic present ('he begs'); the Peshitta renders with the periphrastic perfect ܘܒܥܐ ܗܘܐ (compound verb + auxiliary ܗܘܐ marking past continuous action), while the Vulgate deprecabatur uses the imperfect — both versions normalise the Greek dramatic present into a past tense.

Greek ὅτι functions as a recitative marker introducing direct speech (untranslated in English). The Peshitta supplies ܠܗ ('to him') as an indirect-object complement to ܘܐܡܪ, a typical Semitic explicitating gloss absent from the Greek; the Vulgate represents the ὅτι with a colon plus Quoniam.

Greek uses the diminutive θυγάτριον ('little daughter', τὸ ... μου), an affective form characteristic of Mark. Both the Peshitta (ܒܪܬܝ, 'my daughter' with pronominal suffix) and the Vulgate (filia mea) flatten the diminutive into a plain noun, losing the emotive nuance.

The Greek idiom ἐσχάτως ἔχει ('is at the extremity', i.e. at the point of death) is an adverb + ἔχω construction. The Peshitta renders it ܒܝܫܐܝܬ ܥܒܝܕܐ ('she is grievously affected'), using the passive participle of ʿ-b-d; the Vulgate in extremis est preserves the sense literally with a prepositional phrase.

Greek introduces the purpose with ἵνα ('that') governing the following subjunctives, matched by the Vulgate's ut. The Peshitta has no corresponding conjunction here, instead juxtaposing the imperatives ܬܐ ܣܝܡ asyndetically; the syntactic subordination of the Greek is recast as paratactic imperative.

Greek ἐλθὼν is an aorist participle ('having come') subordinated to the main verb. Both the Peshitta ܬܐ and the Vulgate veni convert this into a finite/imperative form ('come!'), restructuring the participial chain into coordinate commands.

Greek ἐπιθῇς is a second-person aorist subjunctive within a purpose clause ('that you may lay'); both versions render it as a bare imperative (Peshitta ܣܝܡ, Vulgate impone), again converting the Greek subordinate construction into direct command.

Greek and Latin texts vary in number: Greek has the plural τὰς χεῖρας ('the hands') while the Vulgate manum and the Peshitta ܐܝܕܟ are both singular ('your hand'). The singular is the better-attested reading in many witnesses and reflects a common scribal/translational simplification of the gesture of laying-on of hands.

Greek repeats ἵνα to introduce the second purpose clause ('so that she may be cured'), and the Vulgate ut likewise. The Peshitta lacks a corresponding conjunction, instead prefixing the consequence directly via the waw-conversive verb ܘܬܬܚܠܡ ('and she will be healed'), favouring Semitic paratactic coordination.

Greek σωθῇ (aorist passive subjunctive of σῴζω, 'be saved/healed') is rendered in the Peshitta by ܘܬܬܚܠܡ from the root ḥ-l-m specifically denoting 'be made whole/healed', narrowing the polysemy of σῴζω to physical healing; the Vulgate salva sit ('be saved/safe') preserves the broader sense closer to the Greek.