Wikipedia's first sentence called it “eternal flame that was supposed to burn in the altar in the jewish tabernacle and never go out”. Today it says “eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the temple in jerusalem and never be extinguished”.
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 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010
The aish tamid (אש תמיד) is the eternal flame that was supposed to burn in the altar in the Jewish Tabernacle and never go out.1 It is not to be confused with the Ner tamid , the eternal light that is kept in front of the ark. In modern Jewish practice, the aish tamid is kept alive symbolically through daily prayer and the study of Torah .2Matisyahu , an American Jewish reggae artist, who has made the term popular among pop culture produced a song entitled "Aish Tamid." In the song, he sings, "Aish tamid eternally, fire burns continuously." (full lyrics to the song can be found here [1] .) The song is often viewed to be a metaphor between the destruction of the second temple and the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City.3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 298973830.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The aish tamid ( , continuous fire ) is the eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem and never be extinguished. It is not to be confused with the Ner tamid , the eternal light that is kept in front of the Holy Ark in the synagogue . In modern Jewish practice, the aish tamid is symbolically kept alive through daily prayer and the study of Torah . Matisyahu , an American Jewish reggae artist, who has made the term popular among pop culture produced a song entitled "Aish Tamid." In the song, he sings, "Aish tamid eternally, fire burns continuously." (full lyrics to the song can be found here [1] .)
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 614782193.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The aish tamid ( , continuous fire ) is the eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem and never be extinguished. It is not to be confused with the Ner tamid , the eternal light that is kept in front of the Holy Ark in the synagogue . In modern Jewish practice, the aish tamid is symbolically kept alive through daily prayer and the study of Torah .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1100181402.
The opening as it stood in 2025
The aish tamid ( Hebrew : אֵשׁ תָּמִיד , continuous fire ) is the eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem and never be extinguished. It is not to be confused with the Ner tamid , the eternal light that is kept in front of the Holy Ark in the synagogue . In modern Jewish practice, the aish tamid is symbolically kept alive through daily prayer and the study of Torah .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1255167702. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “eternal flame that was supposed to burn in the altar in the jewish tabernacle and never go out”. Today it says “eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the temple in jerusalem and never be extinguished”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
eternal flame that was supposed to burn in the altar in the jewish tabernacle and never go out
Now
eternal flame that was to burn upon the altar in the temple in jerusalem and never be extinguished
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.
