Acts 16:27

And the jailor, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

Pagan that he was, the jailer lived by a harsh code and was willing to die by it. Philippi was the place where "Cassius, unable to survive defeat, covered his face in the empty tent, and ordered his freedman to strike the blow."[14] Here his messenger Titinius held it to be a Roman's part to follow his master as a suicide; and here "Brutus bade adieu to his friends and ended the last struggle for the republic by self-inflicted death."[15] Not many suicides are mentioned in the Bible. There are those of Samson (Judges 16:29,30), Saul and his armor-bearer (1 Samuel 31:4,5; 1 Chronicles 10:4,5); Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), Zimri (1 Kings 16:18), and Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:18). In pagan lands, however, suicide was an accepted manner of solving a problem, as in the case before us.

[14] J. S. Howson, Life and Epistles of St. Paul (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, Publishers), p. 237.

[15] Ibid.