Mark 8 : 29

Greek opens paratactically with καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπηρώτα ('and he himself was questioning'), an imperfect of repeated/ongoing action; the Peshitta reduces this to a simple perfect ܐܡܪ ('said'), and the Vulgate replaces the conjunction with the temporal adverb Tunc dicit ('then he says'), a present-tense narrative rendering. The three traditions thus diverge in both verb of speech and tense aspect.

The Peshitta explicitly supplies the subject ܝܫܘܥ ('Jesus') of the verb of speaking, a clarifying expansion absent from both the Greek and the Latin, where the subject is left implicit in the third-person verb.

Greek με and Latin me render the object pronoun 'me' directly governed by the infinitive; Syriac uses the prepositional phrase ܥܠܝ ('concerning me'), constructing 'what do you say concerning me that I am', a periphrasis idiomatic to Syriac syntax.

Greek λέγετε and Latin dicitis express the second-person plural verb synthetically; the Peshitta uses the periphrastic participle ܐܡܪܝܢ ܐܢܬܘܢ ('saying [are] you'), the regular Syriac analytic present construction.

Greek εἶναι and Latin esse use the bare infinitive 'to be'; the Peshitta renders this with a finite first-person form ܕܐܝܬܝ ('that I am'), introducing a complementiser clause rather than an infinitival construction.

The Vulgate marks the introduction of direct speech with an explicit colon, where the Greek embeds the high point within αὐτούς·; the Syriac employs no such punctuation token.

The Vulgate sets the interrogative off with a discrete question mark token, whereas the Greek incorporates it into εἶναι; and the Syriac has no corresponding mark.

Greek and Latin use a participle of answering (ἀποκριθεὶς / Respondens) followed by a connective δέ; the Peshitta renders the same with a finite verb ܥܢܐ ('he answered'), reflecting the Syriac preference for serial finite verbs over participial subordination.

Greek λέγει uses the historic present 'says'; the Peshitta adds a coordinating waw ܘܐܡܪ ('and said'), and the Latin ait again employs a defective verb of speech — the three reflect distinct stylistic conventions for introducing the reply.

The Vulgate again marks the onset of Peter's direct discourse with a colon; the Greek folds the high point into αὐτῷ· while the Syriac transmits no punctuation token here.

Greek εἶ and Latin es supply the finite copula 'are'; the Syriac uses the enclitic pronoun ܗܘ ('he/is') as a nominal-sentence copula, the standard Syriac construction for predicate identity without a verb 'to be'.

The Peshitta appends ܒܪܗ ܕܐܠܗܐ ܚܝܐ ('the Son of the living God'), absent from both the Greek NA28 and the Vulgate at Mark 8:29; this is a harmonisation toward the parallel confession in Matt 16:16 (σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος), a well-attested Syriac assimilation of the shorter Markan reading to the fuller Matthean form.