by Robert Barry

About the author: Robert Barry is a biblical scholar.

Professor Margaret Battin has claimed that the Bible contains no explicit condemnations of suicide and that the Bible not only tolerated self-killing but also positively encouraged it. Similar sentiments were recently declared by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Compassion in Dying v. Washington where the Court states: "The stories of four suicides are noted in the Old Testament— Sampson, Saul, Abimlech [sic], and Achitophel—and none is treated as an act worthy of censure. In the New Testament, the suicide of Judas Iscariot is not treated as a further sin, rather as an act of repentance." But this view cannot go unchallenged, as it manifests a superficial and unreflective understanding of biblical material. This view fails to see that Scripture condemns or approves of...