Acts 5:33

“When they heard that, etc.] This defence of the apostles, in which they still insisted upon it, that they had been the crucifiers of Christ, and yet that he was raised from the dead, and exalted in heaven, and was a spiritual Saviour of men: they were cut; to the heart, as if they had been cut asunder with a saw; the Ethiopic version renders it, “they were angry”, and “gnashed with their teeth”, as if a saw was drawn to and fro; they were filled with rage and madness: and took counsel to slay them; not in a legal and judicial way, but in a private manner, or by force; stirring up the zealots to rise up against them, and dispatch them at once, as blasphemers and heretics.”

“cut to the heart and took--"were taking." counsel to slay them--How different this feeling and the effect of it from that "pricking of the heart" which drew from the first converts on the day of Pentecost the cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Act 2:37). The words used in the two places are strikingly different.”

“When they heard that - That which the apostle Peter had said, to wit, that they were guilty of murder; that Jesus was raised up; and that he still lived as the Messiah. They were cut to the heart - The word used here properly denotes “to cut with a saw”; and as applied to the “mind,” it means to be agitated with “rage” and “indignation,” as if wrath should seize upon the mind as a saw does upon wood, and tear it violently, or agitate it severely. When used in connection with “the heart,” it means that the heart is violently agitated and rent with rage. See Acts 7:54. It is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. The “reasons” why they were thus indignant were doubtless: Because the apostles…”

“5:33-40 God once again thwarted the Jewish leaders’ plans to stop the apostles—this time through the counsel of Gamaliel.”

“they: Act 2:37, Act 7:54, Act 22:22; Luk 4:28, Luk 4:29, Luk 6:11, Luk 11:50-54, Luk 19:45-48, Luk 20:19 took: Act 9:23; Gen 4:5-8; Psa 37:12-15, Psa 37:32, Psa 37:33, Psa 64:2-8; Mat 10:21, Mat 10:25, Mat 23:34, Mat 23:35; Mat 24:9; Joh 15:20, Joh 16:2 Acts 5:34”