Mark 7 : 17

The temporal conjunction ὅτε ('when') is matched by Latin cum and by Syriac ܟܕ; the Syriac couples ܟܕ with the postpositive ܕܝܢ, producing a 'but/now when' construction that absorbs the discourse connective rather than rendering it as a separate clause-initial conjunction.

Greek εἰσῆλθεν is an aorist indicative ('he entered'); the Vulgate introisset is a pluperfect subjunctive governed by cum, while Syriac ܥܠ is a simple perfect. The Latin subjunctive reflects the standard cum-historicum construction and does not alter the sense.

The Peshitta supplies the explicit subject ܝܫܘܥ ('Jesus') for the verb of entering, whereas both Greek and Vulgate leave the third-person subject implicit in the verb. This is a clarifying expansion typical of Syriac narrative style.

The phrase 'from the crowd' is rendered by Greek ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου with the article and Latin a turba without; Syriac ܡܢ ܟܢܫܐ likewise lacks an article. The presence or absence of the article carries no semantic weight here, the determination being inherent.

Greek and Latin place the verb (ἐπηρώτων / interrogabant) before its subject 'disciples', while Syriac ܫܐܠܘܗܝ already encliticises the object pronoun ('asked him') onto the verb, fusing the object that Greek and Latin express separately (αὐτόν / eum).

The accusative object pronoun αὐτόν / eum is expressed as a free word in Greek and Latin, but the Peshitta incorporates it as the enclitic suffix -ܘܗܝ on the verb ܫܐܠܘܗܝ, a normal feature of Syriac verbal morphology.

Greek marks the subject with the article οἱ μαθηταί, the Vulgate with bare discipuli; the Syriac ܬܠܡܝܕܘܗܝ fuses the noun with the possessive suffix ('his disciples'), thereby combining the subject and the following genitive pronoun into a single morphological unit.

The genitive pronoun αὐτοῦ / ejus ('of him', i.e. 'his') appears as a separate word in Greek and Latin but is realised as the possessive suffix on ܬܠܡܝܕܘܗܝ in Syriac, an instance of the language's standard nominal pronominal suffixation.

Greek introduces the topic with the preposition περὶ τὴν παραβολήν ('concerning the parable') and Syriac similarly with ܥܠ ܡܬܠܐ; the Vulgate, however, omits the preposition and renders parabolam as a bare accusative ('asked him the parable'), a more direct construction without semantic loss.

The Peshitta appends the demonstrative/copular ܗܘ after ܡܬܠܐ, yielding 'that parable' or 'this parable', a deictic specification absent from both the Greek and the Vulgate which leaves the parable referenced anaphorically by the article alone.