Greek word · G1031
βρύχω
brychō
to gnash
To grind or gnash the teeth. It is an animal-like gesture of fury and hostility, and sometimes also of frustrated anguish. The related noun brygmos ('gnashing') appears in Jesus' phrase 'weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
βρύχω (Attic, βρύκω),
[in LXX: Job 16:10(9), Psa.34 (35):16 36 (37):12 111 (112):10, Lamentations 2:16 (חרק)* ;]
1. to bite or eat greedily.
2. to gnash, grind, with the teeth: Acts 7:54.
† (AS)
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
To grind or gnash the teeth. It is an animal-like gesture of fury and hostility, and sometimes also of frustrated anguish. The related noun brygmos ('gnashing') appears in Jesus' phrase 'weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
- Against the English
'Gnashed their teeth' (BSB, WEB, YLT; KJV 'gnashed on him with their teeth') is accurate. The KJV's 'gnashed on him' even suggests biting at him, which fits the predatory picture in the Psalms. Paraphrases that turn this into a modern gesture lose the scriptural echo.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Greek Old Testament this is the stock gesture of the wicked against the righteous sufferer: Psalm 35:16 (LXX 34:16), 'they gnashed their teeth at me'; Psalm 37:12 (LXX 36:12), 'the wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him'; Psalm 112:10 (LXX 111:10), 'the sinner will see and be angry; he will gnash his teeth'; also Job 16:9 and Lamentations 2:16, which use the same image with related wording.
Where it appears
Acts · 1
-
Acts 7:54 ἔβρυχον were gnashing
On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.
Here: Grinding the teeth in fury. In the Greek Psalms this is the gesture of the wicked against the righteous man. The imperfect pictures it going on: they kept grinding their teeth at him.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.