Were there acts of suicide in the land before Judas hanged himself?
Matthew 27:3
NRSV - 3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.
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Asked January 23 2018
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Jaye Smith
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Tim Maas
Prior to Judas' suicide in the New Testament, the Old Testament recorded five individuals who took their own lives, or ordered another person to kill them: Abimelech (Judges 9:54) Saul (1 Samuel 31:4) Saul's armor-bearer (1 Samuel 31:4-6) Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23) Zimri (1 Kings 16:18) (Some also consider the death of Samson in Judges 16:28-32 to have been a suicide, but his primary goal and motive for the action by which he died was not his own death, but the simultaneous death of thousands of Philistines, who were enemies of Israel.) Although suicide is not an unforgivable sin, it is never presented by the Bible as an acceptable or God-approved act. It is the taking of a life that only God (who gave it) has the right to end in the time and way of His choosing.
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