Mark 7 : 5

Greek ἐπερωτῶσιν is a discrete present-tense verb governing the conjunction separately, whereas the Peshitta fuses the conjunction and verb into a single prefixed-conjugated form ܘܫܐܠܘܗܝ ('and-they-asked-him'), already incorporating the pronominal object suffix. The Latin retains an analytic imperfect interrogabant.

The explicit accusative pronoun αὐτόν and Latin eum render the object that Syriac has absorbed into the verbal suffix of ܘܫܐܠܘܗܝ; no separate Peshitta token corresponds, hence its absence from this group.

All three name the Pharisees, but the Greek and Latin list 'Pharisees and scribes' in that sequence, while the Peshitta inverts the pair to 'scribes and Pharisees' (ܣܦܪܐ ... ܘܦܪܝܫܐ); the conjunctional ܘ here prefixes 'Pharisees' rather than standing between as in Greek.

The connective καί / et joining the two groups corresponds to the prefixed ܘ on ܘܦܪܝܫܐ; because the Syriac order is reversed, the conjunction attaches to the second-listed term, illustrating the inverted enumeration.

Greek γραμματεῖς and Latin scribæ ('scribes') stand last in the pair, but the Peshitta ܣܦܪܐ stands first, reflecting the customary Syriac sequence 'scribes and Pharisees' (cf. the same order in the Peshitta of Matt 23). The Greek article οἱ has no separate Syriac equivalent.

Greek expresses the interrogative analytically as διὰ τί ('on account of what'), the Vulgate compresses it to the single adverb Quare, and the Peshitta uses the unified interrogative ܠܡܢܐ ('why/for what'); all three are semantically equivalent renderings of the causal question.

The negative particle οὐ / ܠܐ / non differs only in placement: Greek and Latin position it immediately before the verb, while the Syriac ܠܐ precedes ܡܗܠܟܝܢ after the subject ܬܠܡܝܕܝܟ has been fronted.

Greek πρεσβυτέρων and Latin seniorum render 'elders' by age/seniority, while the Peshitta ܕܩܫܝܫܐ (root q-sh-sh, cognate with Hebrew קָשִׁישׁ and Arabic قِسِّيس) carries the sense of venerable elders; the Greek genitive article τῶν is represented by the Syriac relative prefix ܕ.

Where Greek κοιναῖς and Latin communibus describe the hands directly as 'common/unsanctified', the Peshitta restructures the clause with a circumstantial ܟܕ ('while') plus the negated verb ܠܐ ܡܫܓܢ ('not washing/separating'), shifting from an adjectival predicate to a verbal expression of the ritual omission. This represents a genuine syntactic and conceptual recasting of the defilement notion.

Greek χερσίν and Latin manibus stand in the dative/ablative of means ('with hands'), while the Peshitta ܐܝܕܝܗܘܢ carries the third-person plural possessive suffix ('their hands'), making the agency explicit and binding the noun to the preceding circumstantial clause.

The Greek question mark embedded in ἄρτον;¶ and the separate Latin interrogative ? both mark the sentence as a direct question; the Peshitta carries no terminal punctuation token, the interrogative force being borne lexically by ܠܡܢܐ.