==Sabians = Adherents of the Prevailing Religion==

What does one learn from these stories? At least two things. The first would seem to corroborate an exceptionally fitting definition of the Sabians by al-Bìrùnì to which we shall turn at once: exceptional because it is unique for its exactness and clearness, and also because the great Persian polygraph shows that he is able to improve a definition of the ''real Sabians'', given by him within his ''Chronology ''almost thirty years before, which in our previous study we found already very interesting and suggestive. Actually we have to do with two passages, that are respectively contained in chapter VIII and chapter XVIII of the book, but their remarkable similarity allows us to quote here only the first text: it is worth noting, however, that the writer felt the need to repeat twice what he had come to know on the subject, because this detail suggests that he was perfectly aware of the special importance of such an explanation of the historical rising of Sabianism. He writes: ''The Sabians are the remnant of the Jewish tribes who remained in Babylonia, when the other tribes left it for Jerusalem in the days of [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]] and Artaxerxes. Those remaining tribes felt themselves attracted to the rites of the Magians, and so they ''inclined ''(were ''inclined'', ''i.e. ''Sàbi) towards the religion of Nebukadnezar, and adopted a system mixed of Magism and Judaism like that of Samaritans in Syria'' <ref>AL-BIRUNI, ''Chronology'', p.188; cf. p.314 f.</ref>.

Well, we perceived that a similar version of the facts suddenly opened a window on the truth: what more could one desire than this? It was the extremely plain description of the phenomenon of Proselytism in relation to the Jewish people <ref> The ''LXX ''normally traslate the Hebrew ''ger ''with ''prosèlytos'', even if often we have to do only with resident aliens, namely with stangers living in Palestine but not converted to Judaism (cf. for example the expression ''ha-ger ‘asèr yagur be-ysra’èl ''[''Ex''. 14, 7] which is rendered with ''oi proselyteuòntes en tò Israèl,'' “whoever among the strangers dwells in Israel”. In the course of centuries, though, the original connotation of the word took a socio-religious tract that will become the final meaning of the term (cf. the references quoted above n.60). It is worth noting the Greek transcription ''geìoras ''of the aramaean ''giyyorà ''(''Ex''. 12, 19; ''Is ''14, 1; but see also PHILO, ''Conf. ling''., 82; JUSTINUS, ''Dial''. 122, 1[''geòras ''beside ''prosèlytos'']; JULIUS AFRICANUS, ''Ep. ad Arist''., 5, in EUSEBIUS, ''Hist. Eccl''., I, 7, 13 [''geiòra''i = ''prosèlytoi'']), though, unfortunately, nothing similar happened in the Arab or Syriac versions of the ''Acts ''in relation to the word ''sebòmenos''/''o''i (''tòn theòn''): the ''Peshitta ''uses in fact in this case the participial form of the root ''DHL'', while Arabic uses the participle of the verbs ''‘abada ''and ''tawaqqa ''or ''ittaqa ''(''khàfa ''for ''oi phoboùmenoi''/ “fearers”). 194 bis) For the origins and the historical developments of Jewish Proselytism, an excellent but quite up-todate bibliography is contained in the already quoted art. “Proselyte, Proselytisme”, ''DB'', Suppl. VIII, cols.1353-6 (A. PAUL); see therefore also the bibliographical references quoted above n.60. It is to be stressed the semantic correspondence between the Greek verb ''prosèrkhomai'', “to go towards, to lean, etc.”, and the above observed semantic nuance of the Arabic verbs ''saba’a''/''sabà ''(p.8 f. and notes). Though noticing that “''Sàbi’ ''… came to serve as one of the several designations for ‘proselyte’ “, BUCK, “The Identity of the Sàbi’ùn”, p.173 – as well J. WANSBROUGH, ''The Sectarian Milieu: Content and Composition in IslamicSalvation History'', London 1978, p.102 – does not arrive to the same unavoidable conclusion of ours; but see also below n.197, for the meaning ''prosèlytos ''= “convert to Christianity” or more in general “a person approaching anything new”. For Abraham as a prototype of proselytes, see W. BOUSSET - H. GREESMANN, ''Die Religion des Judentums in spathellenistilichen Zeitalter'', Tubingen 19263, p.186; or also SIMON, ''Verus Israel'', p.205 n.5; actually Abraham, as well as Job, continues to be remembered as preeminently “God-fearing” (Abraham: ''4 Macc. ''15, 28; ''TNaph. ''1, 10; Anon. in EUSEBIUS, ''Praep. Ev''., ix, 17, 3; in ''Genes., ''22, 12, he is not “God-fearing”, but one who “fears God”; Job: Ps. ARISTEAS in EUSEBIUS, ''Praep. Ev''., ix, 25, 4). For the parallel between Job and Abraham, see also ''b. Sotah, ''31a, cited by WILCOX, “The ‘Godfearers’ in Acts”, p.106, who argues that Luke is putting Cornelius, like Simeon and Lydia, within this tradition. For Proselytes, see finally NOCK, ''Conversion'', p.61 f. and p.109.</ref>, of its first chronological manifestation … <ref>194 bis</ref>; or rather it was in this sense that we were tempted to interpret the excerpt: it seemed in fact to confirm on the whole our hypothesis about the equation Sabians–God-Fearers, by laying the foundation stone of the theoretical building. Though pointing to the same direction, however, the ''Chronology''’s text says literally something slightly different, but in order to understand what such a thing would be we have to look at al-Bìrùnì’s complementary definition of the Sabians which we started from, the one contained in his ''Kitàb altafhìm'', the ''Book of Initiation in the Elements of the Art of Astrology''.

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