Mark 14 : 68

Greek employs a double-negative construction with two verbs (οὔτε οἶδα οὔτε ἐπίσταμαι, 'neither do I know nor understand'), emphasizing Peter's complete ignorance through synonymous parallelism. The Peshitta simplifies to a single negated verb (ܠܐ ܝܕܥ ܐܢܐ, 'I do not know'), omitting the second verb entirely. The Vulgate preserves the Greek doublet with 'neque scio, neque novi' but uses two forms of the same root (scio/novi) rather than distinct verbs, creating lexical variation within semantic equivalence.

The Peshitta adds an explicit first-person pronoun ܐܢܐ ('I') after the verb, a common Syriac stylistic feature for emphasis or clarity, though the verb morphology already encodes person. Greek σὺ and Vulgate omit this, relying on verbal inflection alone.

Greek places the pronoun σὺ before the interrogative τί λέγεις ('you—what do you say'), creating emphasis on the addressee. Peshitta reverses this to ܡܢܐ ܐܡܪܐ ܐܢܬܝ ('what are you saying'), following standard Syriac VSO word order. Vulgate mirrors Greek order ('quid dicas') but uses subjunctive mood where Greek has indicative, a syntactic adjustment for indirect discourse.

Greek uses a compound verb ἐξῆλθεν with adverb ἔξω ('he went out / outside'), creating redundancy for emphasis. Peshitta employs the simple verb ܢܦܩ with prepositional phrase ܠܒܪ ('he went out / to the outside'), semantically identical but syntactically distinct. Vulgate 'exiit foras' mirrors Greek structure with compound verb plus adverb.

Greek specifies εἰς τὸ προαύλιον ('into the forecourt/gateway'), using a rare architectural term (προαύλιον appears only here in the NT). Peshitta uses ܠܣܦܐ ('to the threshold/vestibule'), a different architectural feature. Vulgate reads 'ante atrium' ('before the courtyard'), employing a prepositional phrase that locates Peter outside rather than within a structure, creating a spatial divergence across all three traditions.