Acts 7:54
Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Audientes autem hæc, dissecabantur cordibus suis, et stridebant dentibus in eum.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Ἀκούοντες δὲ ταῦτα διεπρίοντο ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν καὶ ἔβρυχον τοὺς ὀδόντας ἐπʼ αὐτόν.
Haydock's commentary
They were cut to the heart: exasperated even to rage and madness. See chap. v, ver. 33. gnashing their teeth with indignation. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter I. 32, 33
3. Therefore, when He sent the Holy Spirit He manifested Him visibly in two ways, by a dove and by fire: by a dove upon the Lord when He was baptized, by fire upon the disciples when they were gathered together. For when the Lord had ascended into heaven after His resurrection, having spent forty days with His disciples, and the day of Pentecost being fully come, He sent unto them the Holy Spirit as He had promised. Accordingly the Spirit coming at that time filled the place, and there was first a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, and “there appeared unto them,” it says, “cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they began to speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Here we have seen a dove descending upon the Lord; there, cloven tongues upon the assembled disciples: in the former, simplicity is shown …
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XVIII on Acts vii. 54
Acts VII. 54 “When they heard these things, they were cut to “the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.”
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XVIII on Acts vii. 54
He mentions the cause of his (angelic) appearance (Recapitulation, vii. 54; viii. 2 .); “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” And when he said, “I see the heavens opened, they stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.” ( v. 56, 57 .) And yet in what respect are these things deserving of accusation? “Upon him,” the man who has wrought such miracles, the man who has prevailed over all in speech, the man who can hold such discourse! As if they had got the very thing they wanted, they straightway give full scope to their rage. “And the witnesses,” he says, “laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul.” ( v. 58 .) Observe how particularly he relates what concerns Paul, to show thee that the Power which wrought in him was of God. …