Suicide is Biblical. Suicides populate the Holy Bible.

Suicide is not expressly prohibited in the Old Testament or the New Testament. In A Noble Death, Droge and Taber count six instances of suicide:

First, during an assault on the city of Thebez, Abimelech is mortally wounded. He commands his armor-bearer: “Draw thy sword and slay me.” (Judges 9:54-6) The outcome is understood as God’s justice for his past sin of fratricide, for Abimelech massacred seventy of his own brothers in pursuit of power.

Second, Samson, now shorn, blinded, and chained between two pillars begs Yahweh for strength once more: “only this once … that I may be avenged upon the Philistines …” Thus he prays, “Let me die with the Philistines.” (Judges 16:28–31)

Third, wounded in battle, Saul also calls upon his armor-bearer to kill the king. He is refused and so falls on his own sword. In grief and loyalty, the servant responds in kind. (1 Samuel 31:4–5)

Fourth, Ahithophel whispers revolt to Absalom and is repaid with humiliation. “When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his [donkey], and went off home to his own city. And he set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.” (2 Samuel 17:23)

Fifth, the military leader Zimri executed his king Elah and seized the throne of northern Israel. He was soon defeated, however. “And when Zimri saw that the city [of Tirzah] was taken, he went into the citadel of the king’s house, and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and died, because of his sins which he committed, doing evil in the sight of Yahweh … and … making Israel to sin.” (1 King 16)

Sixth, “Then Judas, which had betrayed [Christ], when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood…And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.” (Matt: 27: 3–5)

There is also the biblical consolation prize, which goes to Jonah as a qualified attempted-assisted suicide.

Taking passage on a ship from Nineveh, in flight from Yahweh, he is overtaken by a violent storm. “Take me up and cast me forth into the sea,” Jonah instructs the crew, “so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.” (Jonah 1:12)

Job’s command is obeyed and he is abandoned to the sea, only to be saved by divine intervention by way of a whale.

Some suicides are portrayed as matters of course, death rather than defeat in battle. Some suicides are made to seem praiseworthy, such as Samson’s. Ahithophel commits treachery against King David, yet he is accorded funeral rites and a proper family burial. Some suicides are seen as an instrument of God’s justice. Judas is seen as administering justice to himself.

Nowhere in the Old Testament or the New Testament is suicide itself condemned as sinful or as rebellion against God.

Suicide is often the final act of the sinful, but it is never portrayed as a sinful act. Augustine’s condemnation relies on the commandment: Thou shalt not kill. For if there was a better passage, more direct, more explicit, more precise, less riddled with Scriptural exception and ambiguity, he would have used it. Aquinas would have used it. Luther would have used it. Calvin would have used it.

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