Den kristne kirkes holdning til selvmord i det 2. og 3. arhundrede

This article deals with the origin of the Christian prohibition of suicide. Though some scholars maintain that this prohibition is very ancient, having its origin in the spirit of the Bible, other scholars (most extensively A.J. Droge's and J.D. Tabor's A Noble Death (New York 1992)) maintain that the early Church did not distinguish martyrdom from suicide and that Tertullian and Origen described the death of Jesus as a kind of suicide. According to this view, there was originally no prohibition, which, together with the distinction between martyrdom and suicide, was first introduced by Augustine, though he had a few predecessors. The justification of the prohibition was based on Plato's Phaedo 62b. These assertions are re-examined in this article which argues that a distinction between »sacrificial death« and »suicide« is already presupposed in John 8.22. It is furthermore demonstrated that a distinction between martyrdom and suicide is explicitly found in Justin, Clement of Alexandria and Origen and implicitly in Tertullian. When Clement attacks aggressive forms of martyrdom by branding them as »suicides«, he is not reproducing his adversaries' understanding of themselves, but his attack presupposes a consensus of opinion that suicide is wrong. Tertullian and Origen claimed that Jesus gave up his spirit voluntarily as a manifestation of his divinity; therefore they do not consider his death a kind of »suicide«. I suggest that modern scholars force Durkheim's definition of suicide into ancient Christian texts, anachronistically turning »sacrificial death« into a species of »suicide«. Furthermore, the notion that »suicide« has only been prohibited since Augustine is demonstrated as incorrect; a Christian prohibition can be traced back to the middle of the second century when Justin claimed that suicide was against the divine will and Heracleon expressed the view that suicides will not participate in the eternal rest. This anti-suicidal attitude is continued in Te