Mark 12 : 28

Greek uses the aorist participle προσελθὼν ('having come up'), Latin the finite preterite accessit, and the Syriac prefixes a finite verb ܘܩܪܒ to the conjunction; the Syriac waw-prefixed verb collapses conjunction and participle into a single finite clause, a routine Syriac narrative idiom differing syntactically from the Greek circumstantial participle.

Greek and Latin render the partitive with article + genitive plural (τῶν γραμματέων / de scribis, 'of the scribes'), whereas the Syriac uses ܡܢ + the morphologically singular ܣܦܪܐ ('from the scribe[s]'), the Syriac emphatic form here functioning collectively rather than as a true numerical singular.

Greek uses the present participle in the genitive συζητούντων agreeing with αὐτῶν (genitive absolute style), Latin the accusative participle conquirentes, and the Syriac a relative clause ܕܕܪܫܝܢ ('that they were disputing'); the Syriac root d-r-sh carries a nuance of disputation/study, equivalent in sense to συζητέω.

Greek and Syriac place the indirect object after the verb (αὐτοῖς / ܠܗܘܢ), while the Vulgate fronts illis before responderit, a stylistic Latin reordering with no semantic effect.

The Peshitta supplies an explicit direct object ܦܬܓܡܐ ('a word/answer') as the thing answered, an idiomatic Syriac amplification absent from both the Greek and Latin, which leave the object of ἀπεκρίθη / responderit implicit.

Greek and Latin render the questioning with a finite verb plus separate pronoun (ἐπηρώτησεν αὐτόν / interrogavit eum), while the Syriac fuses verb and object suffix into ܘܫܐܠܗ ('and he asked him'), the conjunction-plus-suffixed-verb being a normal Syriac economy of expression.

Greek ἐστὶν and Latin esset express the copula explicitly (the Latin subjunctive marking indirect interrogation), whereas the Syriac encloses the copular pronoun within ܐܝܢܘ (ܐܝܢܐ + ܗܘ, 'which is it'), a fused interrogative-plus-enclitic that subsumes the verb 'to be'.

All three attest 'commandment' (ἐντολή / ܦܘܩܕܢܐ / mandatum), but the Vulgate postpones mandatum to clause-final position after primum omnium, inverting the Greek and Syriac order in which the noun precedes its qualifiers.