Mark 7 : 5

Greek and Vulgate place the Pharisees before the scribes (οἱ Φαρισαῖοι καὶ οἱ γραμματεῖς / pharisæi et scribæ), while the Peshitta reverses the order (ܣܦܪܐ ܘܦܪܝܫܐ, 'scribes and Pharisees'). The Vulgate colon after 'scribæ' marks the transition to direct discourse, a punctuation feature absent in the Greek and Peshitta.

Greek uses the prepositional phrase διὰ τί ('because of what, why'), Vulgate employs the single interrogative adverb 'Quare' ('why'), and Peshitta uses ܠܡܢܐ ('why'). All three are semantically equivalent interrogatives with different syntactic constructions.

The Peshitta expands the Greek phrase κοιναῖς χερσίν ('with common/unwashed hands') into a temporal clause construction: ܟܕ ܠܐ ܡܫܓܢ ܐܝܕܝܗܘܢ ('when they have not washed their hands'). This explicates the implicit meaning of 'common' (ritually impure) hands by specifying the act of not washing, making the ritual violation explicit rather than implicit.