Case file
Abel
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “second son of adam”. Today it says “biblical figure in the book of genesis within the abrahamic religions”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.
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The opening as it read in 2005
Abel ( Hebrew הֶבֶל / הָבֶל , Standard Hebrew Hével / Hável , Tiberian Hebrew Héḇel / Hāḇel ; Arabic هابيل Hābīl ) was the second son of Adam . He was slain by Cain , his elder brother. This story appears in the Bible , Genesis 4:1-16. The narrative in Genesis states that "the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect."1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15899204.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “second son of adam”. Today it says “biblical figure in the book of genesis within the abrahamic religions”. Read the current article and compare.
| 2005 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | Oct '23 | 2025 |
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
second son of adam
Now
biblical figure in the book of genesis within the abrahamic religions
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.