Mark 6 : 16

Greek uses a single aorist participle (ἀκούσας, 'having heard'); Syriac employs the temporal conjunction ܟܕ + finite verb ܫܡܥ ('when he heard'), while the Vulgate renders the idea with an ablative absolute (Quo audito, 'this having been heard'). All three express the same circumstantial-temporal clause through different syntactic strategies.

The Greek postpositive δέ and its Syriac calque ܕܝܢ mark narrative transition; the Vulgate carries the connective force within the ablative-absolute construction (Quo) and supplies no separate particle, a routine Latin economy.

Greek prefixes the nominative article ὁ to the proper noun Ἡρῴδης, a Hellenistic convention; neither Syriac ܗܪܘܕܣ nor Latin Herodes employs an article, since neither language articulates personal names in this manner.

Greek uses the imperfect ἔλεγεν ('was saying'), conveying repeated or habitual speech; both Syriac ܐܡܪ and Latin ait flatten this to a simple past, losing the iterative aspect of the Greek.

The Greek recitative ὅτι introduces direct discourse and functions as a colon; the Vulgate marks the same boundary with an explicit colon (:), whereas the Syriac supplies no overt marker, relying on syntax alone.

Greek uses the single compound verb ἀπεκεφάλισα ('I beheaded'), matched by Latin decollavi; Syriac decomposes the action into verb + object ܦܣܩܬ ܪܫܗ ('I cut off his head'), a typical periphrastic idiom for decapitation.

All three name John as the object of beheading, but the Syriac fronts ܝܘܚܢܢ ahead of the relative clause, whereas Greek and Latin place the name after the verb (Ἰωάννην / Joannem), a difference of clausal sequencing rather than meaning.

The Greek adds the emphatic predicate ἐστιν αὐτὸς ('it is he himself'), reinforcing Herod's identification of the risen one; neither the Syriac nor the Vulgate transmits this redundant copula-plus-intensive pronoun, omitting it as superfluous.

Greek νεκρῶν and Latin mortuis denote 'the dead' with a substantival adjective; Syriac uses the idiomatic locution ܒܝܬ ܡܝܬܐ ('the house/place of the dead'), a Semitic periphrasis for the realm of the deceased.