convictions and ideals, deaths that in the latter case the tradi-
tion judges to be acts of martyrdom. Certainly the deaths at
Masada must be regarded as both faithful obedience to reli-
gious affiliation and identity and the culmination of a desire
to give the Jews’ enemies a hollow victory.
CHRISTIANITY. Christianity repudiates suicide on much the
same biblical grounds as does Judaism. The only suicide re-
corded in the New Testament is that of Jesus’ betrayer, Judas
Iscariot; it is described in such a way as to indicate that it
was a sign of repentance for his deed (Mt. 27:3–5). The
church father Tertullian referred even to Jesus’ death as vol-
untary—a description approximating that of suicide, since
clearly a divine being controls his own life. In his book Con-
version (1962), Arthur Darby Nock points to the “theatricali-
ty” present in some of the actions of the early martyrs, as in
“the frequent tendency of Christians in times of persecution
to force themselves on the notice of the magistrates by tear-
ing down images or by other demonstrations” (p. 197). Bish-
op Ignatius of Antioch, writing to his fellow Christians in
Rome, pleaded that they do nothing to hinder his martyr-
dom but allow him to be consumed entirely by the beasts.
But whereas Tertullian asserted that only martyrs would
reach paradise before the Parousia, Clement of Alexandria
sought to stem the tide of those rushing to martyrdom by
differentiating between self-motivated suicide and genuine
martyrdom for the faith.
In his City of God, which appeared in 428 CE, the church
father Augustine wrote against suicide in a way that became
determinative for the tradition. He discussed various situa-
tions in which a Christian might find himself or herself, and
concluded that suicide is not a legitimate act even in such
desperate circumstances as those of a virgin seeking to protect
her virtue. Augustine argued that suicide is a form of homi-
cide, and thus prohibited by the sixth commandment; that
a suicide committed in order to avoid sin is in reality the
commission of a greater sin to avoid a lesser; and that one
who commits suicide forfeits the possibility of repentance.
Subsequent church councils, as well as such eminent theolo-
gians as Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, sided
with Augustine. Suicide, in contrast to martyrdom, came to
be regarded as both a sin and a crime. Dante placed suicides
in the seventh circle of the inferno in his Divine Comedy, and
popular opinion throughout Christian Europe regarded sui-
cides in the same light as witches and warlocks. Indeed, their
corpses were treated in a similar manner: Suicides were fre-
quently buried at crossroads with stakes driven through their
hearts to prevent their ghosts from causing harm. The last
recorded instance of such a burial in England occurred in
1823, and the law mandating confiscation of the property
of a convicted suicide remained on the books until 1870.
In spite of ecclesiastical censure, religious impulse did
lead to suicides, sometimes on a mass scale. Some thirteenth-
century Cathari or Albigensians may have chosen suicide by
starvation. Even more dramatic are the accounts of the Old
Believers (raskolDniki) in late-seventeenth-century Russia
who chose death by fire over obedience to liturgical changes
introduced by the archbishop Nikon, with the subsequent
backing of the tsars. According to tradition, on several occa-
sions one to two thousand people who had been besieged by
government troops, as at Paleostrovskii monastery in 1688,
locked themselves within chapels or monasteries and burned
them to the ground, consigning their own bodies to the
flames.Although martyrdom as a testimony to one’s faith con-
tinues to be honored within Christianity, suicide as an indi-
vidual act undertaken for nonreligious motives is regarded
as a sin, and until recently it was regarded as a crime unless
done in ignorance of its implications or in a state of lunacy.
Few Christian theologians and philosophers challenged this
view. John Donne, who served as dean of Saint Paul’s in
London, was a notable exception. In his book Biathanatos,
written in 1608 but not published until 1644, Donne chal-
lenged the Augustinian belief that suicides cannot repent; he
argued that a totally negative attitude toward suicide places
limitations on the mercy and charity of God. New attitudes
toward suicide were subsequently expounded by a variety of
philosophers such as David Hume, who argued that suicide
is not a crime. However, although the Christian attitude to-
ward suicide may now be characterized as more compassion-
ate than during earlier periods, the act of suicide, in contrast
to martyrdom, continues to be regarded as a serious sin.
ISLAM. Islam joined Judaism and Christianity in prohibiting
suicide (intih:a ̄r) while glorifying those who die the death of
a martyr (shah ̄ıd) or witness to the faith. While scholars de-
bate whether or not the QurDa ̄n itself specifically forbids sui-
cide, they agree that the h:ad ̄ıth, the traditions that preserve
the words of the Prophet on a wide variety of issues, prohibit
suicide. According to these sources, Muh:ammad proclaimed
that a person who commits suicide will be denied Paradise
and will spend his time in Hell repeating the deed by which
he had ended his life. By the tradition’s own standards, reli-
giously motivated suicide is an impossibility, since the taking
of one’s own life is both a sin and a crime. Nonetheless, as
with Judaism and Christianity, the line between suicide and
martyrdom is not clear. Since it is believed that the Muslim
martyr who dies in defense of the faith is rewarded with im-
mediate entrance into Paradise, where he or she will enjoy
great pleasures and rewards, it would not be surprising if
some Muslims readily participated in battles even when
badly outnumbered, in the hope that they might die while
fighting.
Within Islam the Sh ̄ıE ̄ı sect emphasizes the self-sacrifice
and suffering of its imams, the successors to Muh:ammad.
The death of H:usayn, the grandson of the Prophet, and the
third imam, was regarded by his followers as an act of volun-
tary self-sacrifice that could be termed a religiously motivated
death. Although he died on the battlefield, his death was sub-
sequently interpreted as a goal he both desired and actively
sought; the passion play enacted as the climax of EA ̄shu ̄ra ̄D
(tenth of Muh:arram) depicts his death as actively willed. In8830 SUICIDE