The Conservative *
SUICIDE AMONG THE JEWS AND THE
EARLY CHRISTIANS.
[ Written for THE CONSERVATIVE by Lawrence
Irwell. ]
Suicide seems to have been xincommon
among the Jews tiutil about the begin
ning of the Christian era. In the old
testament only four cases of suicide are
mentioned. The first is that of Sam
son. In his case , the act was that of a
man driven to a condition approaching
insanity by the cruelty of his persecu
tors. His great desire was for revenge
upon his enemies , although it is doubt
ful whether lie cared for his own life ,
after he had been deprived of his
sight. His prayer , "Strengthen mo , I
pray Thee , only this once , O God , that
I may at once bo avenged of the Philis
tines for my two eyes , " seems very
strong evidence that ho sacrificed what
remained to him of life for the gratifi
cation of feeling that he was avenging
himself upon his persecutors.
The Suicide of Saul.
The second and third suicides are
those of Saul and his armor-bearer.
They belong , I think , to the same class
as Samson's , for they wore committed ,
not for any desire for death , but from
the force of external circumstances.
Samson killed himself in order to ob
tain something that was to him dearer
than life , viz ; revenge. Saul and his
follower died in order that they might
escape what was to them worse than
death , i. e. , falling into the hands of
the enemy. Rather than be captured
by his pursuers , when retreating , after
having received a wound , ho called upon
his armor-bearer to kill him. The re
quest not being immediately complied
with , Saul fell upon his sword and died.
His armor-bearer then , in imitation of
his leader , killed himself in order to
avoid being taken prisoner.
The fourth suicide mentioned in the
old testament is that of Ahitophel , the
circumstances of which are peculiar.
Having , with the aid of Absalom ,
raised a rebellion , the cunning Ahito
phel hanged himself to escape the con
sequences of his treachery , as many
persons have done since his time. The
notorious Piggott , who forged the Par-
nell letters , it may be remembered , shot
himself in order to escape arrest and
trial.
The Death of Abimelech.
The case of Abimeleoh was not a tech
nical suicide ; but it approached it veiy
closely. Having had his skull broken
by a stone flung from a height by a
woman , Abimeleoh was killed at his
own request , to enable him to escape the
humiliation of dying by the hand of a
. ' 'A certain cast
woman. woman a piece
of a mill-stone upon Abimelech's head ,
and all to break his skull. Then he
hastily called upon the young man , his
armor-bearer , and said to him , 'draw
thy sword and slay me , that men may
not say of mo 'a woman slow him. '
And his young man thrust him through
and he died. "
Jews Prefer Death to Submission.
In the case of Eleazar and those who
took refuge with him in Massada after
the capture of Jerusalem by Titus , as
recorded by Josephus , we have an ex
ample of a whole Jewish garrison pre
ferring death to submission. Eleazar ,
with several hundred soldiers and fol
lowers were about A. T > . 70 , besieged in
the stronghold named Massada , by the
Romans under Silva. When the Jews
saw that defeat was inevitable , they de
cided to die by their own hands rather
than surrender. "The wall ( of the
city ) however , being consumed to the
ground , and no hope or possibility left
of safety or relief , the only bravo thing
they had before them was to consider
how they might deliver their wives and
children from the ignominious outrages
they might expect from the Romans
whenever they became masters of the
place. Eleazar concluded , upon the
balancing of this question , that a glo
rious death was infinitely to be pre
ferred to a life of infamy , and that the
most generous resolution they could take
in the world would be not to outlive
their liberties. " Eleazar told the people
ple that he considered it their duty to
themselves and to their families to kill
themselves after having taken the lives
of their wives and children. At first he
failed to convince his follows of the
wisdom , of the course which he advo
cated , but eventually he brought them
to his way of thinking , and a general
slaughter of the women and children
commenced. In describing the scene ,
Josephus writes : "Such was the pas
sion these people had for the destruction
of themselves and their families that
not one man of them shrank when they
came to execution. They kept up their
dear and natural affection to the last ,
upon an opinion that they could not do
their friends a better service. They
took their last leave of their wives and
children in their arms , with a kiss and
a stab. * * * This wad a
miserable necessity , but they
were driven upon it by a mis
erable choice ; for the destroying of their
wives and children was the least evil
they liad before them. " After this
slaughter they gathered together their
portable property and burned itand then ,
"choosing ten men by lot out of their
number to do execution upon all the
rest , they ranged themselves as near as
they could to the dead bodies of their
friends , gave them a parting embrace ,
and cheerfully presented their throats
to the executioner. As soon as the ten
had , with a mighty resolution , dis-
cliarged then : part , they east lots among
themselves as to which of the remain
ing ten should "dispatch the other nine ,
with a condition that the surviug tenth
man should kill himself lipon the bodies
of the rest , such confidence had these
people in one another. The nine died
with the same constancy as the rest.
The last man overlooked the bodies , and
finding that they were all stark dead
set fire to the palace , and then cast him
self upon his sword among his friends.
* * * The number of the slain was
nine hundred and sixty , reckoning wo
men and children into the account. "
Two women and five children who had
hidden in an aqueduct escaped. These
told the Romans the story , which was
so incredible that they could not believe
it. "But betaking themselves to the
quenching of the fire , and following the
way up to the palace , they found such a
carnage of dead bodies , that without in
sulting and rejoicing as enemies , they
broke out into admiration at the gener
ous greatness of the Jews' minds , the
steadiness of their counsels , and the ob
stinate agreement of such a number of
men in the contempt of death. "
The Escape of Josephus.
Josephus himself , from whose "His
tory of the Wars of the Jews" the above
narrative is taken , came very near to'
losing his life in a similar slaughter.
At about the same time , when leading
the Jewish army against the Romans ,
he and his soldiers were besieged at Jo-
tapata. "When the commander realized
that the position was hopeless , he de
cided to surrender to the enemy. To
this , however , the troops would not
agree , and with threats urged upon
their leader , the nobler course ( as they
considered it ) of self-destruction. In
answer , Josephus addressed the army at
considerable length , and discoursed upon
the wickedness of suicide. But ho failed
to convince the soldiers , and they pro
ceeded to cast lots and to kill each other
until only the leader and one soldier re
mained. When Josephus found him
self in this position he argued the case
with his one comrade , and eventually
convinced him. They decided that
both should live and should give them
selves up to Vespasian , the leader of the
Roman army.
Unselfish Self-Destruction.
In the second book of Maccabees ( the
Apocrypha ) there is an account of the
terrible suicide of Razis. It appears to
illustrate two points first , the favor
with which the Jews regarded what
may be called unselfish suicide , and
secondly the determination with which
defeated Jewish generals sought death.
When Nicauor's soldiers had broken
the fortress in which Razis and his fol
lowers were besieged , and defeat ,
coupled with surrender , was a certainty ,
Razis threw himself upon his sword ,
"choosing rather to die manfully than
to fall into the hands of the enemy , to
bo abused otherwise than beseemed his
noble birth ; but missing his stroke
through haste , the multitude also rush-
