Mark 7 : 6

Greek employs the participial construction ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν (aorist participle + finite verb), a Semitic pleonasm common in the Gospels. Vulgate mirrors this with respondens dixit, while Peshitta uses the simple finite verb ܐܡܪ without participial redundancy, reflecting native Syriac idiom.

Greek and Vulgate insert a recitative ὅτι / colon to introduce direct discourse. Peshitta omits this marker, proceeding directly to the quotation, a standard Syriac syntactic pattern for reported speech.

Peshitta adds ܢܒܝܐ ('the prophet') after ܐܫܥܝܐ (Isaiah), an honorific expansion absent in both Greek and Latin witnesses. This reflects Syriac liturgical or catechetical convention of naming prophets with their title.

Greek περὶ ὑμῶν τῶν ὑποκριτῶν ('concerning you the hypocrites') is rendered in Peshitta as ܥܠܝܟܘܢ ܢܣܒܝ ܒܐܦܐ ('concerning you, hypocrites in face/appearance'), where ܢܣܒܝ ܒܐܦܐ is a Syriac idiom for outward pretense. Vulgate de vobis hypocritis follows the Greek structure closely, using the Latin loanword hypocritis.

Greek ὡς γέγραπται (perfect passive) and Syriac ܐܝܟ ܕܟܬܝܒ (passive participle) are semantically equivalent. Vulgate sicut scriptum est adds the copula est, making the passive periphrastic construction explicit in Latin syntax.

Greek ὅτι and Syriac ܕ introduce the Isaiah quotation as indirect discourse. Vulgate uses a colon, treating the quotation as direct speech, a stylistic choice reflecting Latin rhetorical convention.

Greek οὗτος ὁ λαὸς ('this the people') places the demonstrative before the article-noun phrase. Peshitta ܕܥܡܐ ܗܢܐ and Vulgate Populus hic both place the demonstrative after the noun, reflecting Semitic and Latin word-order norms respectively.

Greek τοῖς χείλεσίν με τιμᾷ places the object pronoun με before the verb. Peshitta ܒܣܦܘܬܗ ܗܘ ܡܝܩܪ ܠܝ uses a cleft construction with the pronoun ܗܘ and postposed object ܠܝ. Vulgate labiis me honorat follows Greek word order but with Latin case morphology.

Greek ἡ δὲ καρδία αὐτῶν uses the article + adversative δέ + noun + genitive pronoun. Peshitta ܠܒܗܘܢ ܕܝܢ employs a construct-state noun with pronominal suffix + adversative particle. Vulgate cor autem eorum mirrors Greek structure with Latin morphology.

Vulgate closes the quotation with a final colon, marking the end of the Isaiah citation. Greek and Peshitta use period/full stop, a minor punctuation divergence with no semantic import.