Greek and Syriac place the verb (ἔγραψεν / ܟܬܒ) before the indirect object, whereas the Vulgate inverts this with nobis scripsit, fronting the dative pronoun for rhetorical emphasis — a stylistic word-order variant without semantic effect.
EN “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
ES Maestro, Moisés nos escribió, que si el hermano de alguno muriese, y dejase mujer, y no dejase hijos, que su hermano tome su mujer, y levante linaje á su hermano.
ZH-HANS 「夫子,摩西为我们写着说:『人若死了,撇下妻子,没有孩子,他兄弟当娶他的妻,为哥哥生子立后。』
ZH-HANT 「夫子,摩西為我們寫着說:『人若死了,撇下妻子,沒有孩子,他兄弟當娶他的妻,為哥哥生子立後。』
Greek and Syriac place the verb (ἔγραψεν / ܟܬܒ) before the indirect object, whereas the Vulgate inverts this with nobis scripsit, fronting the dative pronoun for rhetorical emphasis — a stylistic word-order variant without semantic effect.
Greek ὅτι and Vulgate ut introduce the indirect/legal statement explicitly; the Peshitta subsumes this under the following conditional particle ܕܐܢ ('that if'), so no discrete token corresponds to the recitative conjunction.
Greek (ἐάν τινος) and Latin (si cujus) employ a separate conditional particle plus indefinite genitive, whereas Syriac ܕܐܢ fuses the relative/recitative and conditional senses into a single particle, with the indefinite 'of anyone' carried by ܕܐܢܫ later in the clause.
The indefinite possessor 'of anyone' is expressed in Greek by τινος (5/6 cluster) and Latin by cujus, but in Syriac it is attached to the noun phrase ܐܚܘܗܝ ܕܐܢܫ ('the brother of a man'), the genitive ܕܐܢܫ functioning idiomatically for the indefinite Greek τις.
Greek subjunctive ἀποθάνῃ and Syriac imperfect ܡܐܬ render the protasis as a single verb, while the Vulgate uses the periphrastic future perfect mortuus fuerit ('shall have died'), a Latinism heightening the conditional anteriority.
Greek καί and Vulgate et coordinate the leaving of a wife as a separate clause; the Syriac prefixes the conjunction directly onto the verb ܘܫܒܩ (waw-consecutive), so no standalone connective token exists.
Greek καταλίπῃ ('leave behind') and Latin dimiserit ('send away/release') are near-synonyms for the dying man leaving a widow; Syriac ܘܫܒܩ (root sh-b-q, 'to leave/forsake') matches the Greek sense more closely, the Latin verb carrying a faint connotation of dismissal.
All three negate the begetting of offspring, but the constituent order differs: Greek καὶ μὴ ... τέκνον and Latin et filios non ... place the object before the negated verb, while Syriac ܘܒܢܝܐ ܠܐ fronts the object 'and children' before the negation ܠܐ, a typical Semitic topicalisation.
Greek ἀφῇ (ἀφίημι, 'leave/permit remaining') and Vulgate reliquerit ('leave behind') govern the offspring clause; Syriac repeats ܫܒܩ (sh-b-q), using the same verb as the wife clause rather than a distinct lexeme, a stylistic levelling characteristic of the Peshitta.
Greek uses the singular τέκνον ('a child'), whereas both the Vulgate (filios) and the Syriac (ܘܒܢܝܐ, 'children') render the plural — the versions generalising the leviratic concern to offspring of any number, while the Greek emphasises the absence of even a single heir.
The Greek purpose conjunction ἵνα ('in order that') introducing the leviratic prescription has no formal equivalent in either the Vulgate or the Peshitta, both of which move directly into the jussive/subjunctive verb (accipiat / ܢܣܒ), leaving the purposive nuance implicit.
Greek articulates 'his brother' with article, noun and possessive (ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ) and Latin with frater ejus, while Syriac ܐܚܘܗܝ encodes the third-person possessive suffix on the noun itself, a single synthetic form for the three-token Greek phrase.
Greek τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ ('his wife') and Latin uxorem ipsius are analytic, whereas the Syriac suffixed form ܐܢܬܬܗ synthesises noun and possessive; the Latin choice of the emphatic ipsius (rather than ejus) may subtly mark the wife as the deceased brother's own.
The coordinating conjunction (Greek καί, Vulgate et) joining the final clause is rendered in Syriac by the prefixed waw on the verb ܘܢܩܝܡ rather than as an independent token.
Greek ἐξαναστήσῃ ('raise up') is a compound of ἀνίστημι; the Vulgate resuscitet matches the 'raise up' sense, while Syriac ܘܢܩܝܡ (root q-y-m, causative 'cause to stand/arise') is the standard Semitic idiom for raising up seed, cf. the Hebrew הֵקִים זֶרַע of Deut 25:5–6.
Greek expresses the beneficiary with article, dative noun and possessive (τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτοῦ) and Latin with fratri suo, while Syriac ܠܐܚܘܗܝ fuses the dative preposition ܠ, the noun, and the possessive suffix into one synthetic form.