Mark 15 : 4

Greek opens with the article ὁ functioning as a weak demonstrative subject-marker; Syriac ܗܘ ('he/that one') likewise serves as an anaphoric pronominal subject. The Vulgate has no corresponding token, placing the proper noun first.

Greek uses the present participle λέγων ('saying') as a circumstantial complement, matched by Latin participle dicens; Syriac renders this with a finite coordinated verb ܘܐܡܪ ('and said'), the standard Semitic paratactic construction for introducing direct speech.

Greek ἀποκρίνῃ and Latin respondes encode the second-person subject within the verb morphology, whereas Syriac analytically separates the participle ܡܦܢܐ from the explicit pronoun ܐܢܬ ('you'), a typical Aramaic periphrastic present construction.

Greek οὐδέν and Latin quidquam are indefinite/negative pronouns ('nothing/anything'), while Syriac supplies the concrete noun ܦܬܓܡܐ ('a word/answer'), an idiomatic expansion specifying the content of the (non-)reply rather than abstract nothingness.

Greek uses the bare neuter plural interrogative πόσα ('how many things'); Syriac ܟܡܐ likewise stands alone, while the Vulgate employs a prepositional construction in quantis ('in how many [matters]'), introducing an instrumental/relational nuance absent from the other witnesses.

Greek κατηγοροῦσιν and Latin accusant both denote formal accusation ('they accuse'), whereas Syriac ܡܣܗܕܝܢ derives from the root s-h-d ('to witness/testify'), reframing the action as bearing testimony rather than legal indictment — a subtle lexical shift toward forensic witness.

Greek expresses the accused party with the genitive σου ('of you') governed by the verb of accusing; Latin te is accusative and Syriac ܥܠܝܟ uses the preposition ʿal ('against you'). Each tradition selects the case/preposition idiomatically demanded by its respective verb of accusation.

The Clementine Vulgate marks the speech boundary and interrogative with explicit colon and question-mark tokens; Greek encodes these via the high point and semicolon attached to λέγων· and οὐδέν;, while Syriac transmits no separate punctuation marks here.