Mark 6 : 16

Greek uses aorist participle ἀκούσας with postpositive δέ; Peshitta employs temporal particle ܟܕ ('when') with perfect ܫܡܥ plus ܕܝܢ; Vulgate uses ablative absolute Quo audito. All three express the same temporal-causal relationship but through different syntactic strategies characteristic of each language.

Greek includes the definite article ὁ before Ἡρῴδης, standard for proper names in Koine; Syriac and Latin lack articles as both languages do not grammaticalize definiteness in the same way for proper nouns.

Greek ἔλεγεν (imperfect, 'was saying') suggests iterative or durative aspect; Peshitta ܐܡܪ (perfect) and Vulgate ait (perfect) both use perfective forms, treating Herod's statement as a single completed utterance rather than emphasizing its ongoing nature.

Greek ὅτι and Vulgate colon mark the transition to direct discourse explicitly; Peshitta omits any discourse marker, moving directly from verb to quoted speech, a common Syriac stylistic feature where context suffices to signal direct quotation.

Greek and Vulgate front the relative pronoun ὃν / Quem ('whom') in accusative, creating a left-dislocated object for rhetorical emphasis before the main clause. Peshitta restructures entirely, placing the subject ܝܘܚܢܢ (John) first, followed by the relative clause ܕܐܢܐ ܦܣܩܬ ܪܫܗ ('whom I beheaded'), reflecting Semitic preference for topic-first word order.

Greek ἀπεκεφάλισα and Vulgate decollavi both use single lexemes meaning 'beheaded' (from κεφαλή / collum respectively). Peshitta employs the periphrastic construction ܦܣܩܬ ܪܫܗ ('I cut his head'), a two-word phrase (verb + object with possessive suffix) that is the standard Syriac idiom for decapitation, lacking a single-word equivalent.

Greek places Ἰωάννην at the end of the relative clause as direct object; Vulgate mirrors this with Joannem. Peshitta fronts ܝܘܚܢܢ to clause-initial position before the demonstrative ܗܘ, creating a topicalized structure ('John — he whom I beheaded') that differs syntactically while preserving semantic content.

Greek ἠγέρθη (aorist passive, 'was raised') uses divine passive implying God as agent; Peshitta ܩܡ (active 'arose') and Vulgate resurrexit (active 'rose again') both employ active voice, making the subject the agent of rising, a common difference in resurrection terminology across these traditions.

Greek ἐκ νεκρῶν ('from [the] dead', genitive plural adjective used substantively) and Vulgate a mortuis (ablative plural adjective) both use adjectival constructions. Peshitta employs ܡܢ ܒܝܬ ܡܝܬܐ ('from the house of the dead'), a distinctive Semitic idiom using the construct phrase 'house of' (ܒܝܬ) to denote the realm or abode of the dead, reflecting Sheol/underworld conceptualization absent from the Greek and Latin formulations.