Wikipedia's first sentence called it “time of consolidation in jamnia following the destruction of jerusalem and her temple in 70 ce”. Today it says “name given by 19th century jewish exegete heinrich graetz to a council he hypothesized had been convened by pha”.
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.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 2005
Council of Jamnia was a time of consolidation in Jamnia following the destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple in 70 CE, that lasted until about 90 CE and from which Rabbinic Judaism emerged. According to tradition, it owed much to the spiritual leadership of Yohanan ben Zakkai . Its significance is interpreted differently by Jewish scholars, Catholic scholars, and Protestant scholars. Christian scholars often describe the Old Testament as being formally codified at this meeting; but Jewish scholars usually state that the canon was fixed long before this date. Protestant scholars do not consider the Apocrypha to be part of the Bible and use their interpretation of "the Council of Jamnia" as justification. As regards the pertinence of the term "Council of Jamnia" Jack P. Lewis writes in The Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol. These ongoing debates suggest the paucity of evidence on which the hypothesis of the Council of Jamnia rests and raise the question whether it has not served its usefulness and should be relegated to the limbo of unestablished hypotheses. It should not be allowed to be considered a consensus established by mere repetition of assertion.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17220497.
The opening as it stood in 2010 9 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Some time before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai relocated to the city of Yavne / Jamnia , where he received permission from the Romans to found a school of Halakha (Jewish law).His school became a major source for the later Mishna , which records the Tannaim , and a wellspring of Rabbinic Judaism .In 1871 Heinrich Graetz , drawing on Mishnaic and Talmudic sources, concluded that there must have been a late 1st century Council of Jamnia which had decided the Jewish canon.This became the prevailing scholarly consensus for much of the 20th century, but from the 1960s onwards it came increasingly into question.In particular, later scholars noted that none of Graetz's sources actually mentioned books that had been withdrawn from a canon, and questioned the whole premise that the discussions of the rabbis were about canonicity at all.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370659202.
The opening as it stood in 2015 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e The Council of Jamnia , presumably held in Yavneh , was a hypothetical late 1st-century council at which the canon of the Hebrew Bible was alleged to have been finalized.First proposed by Heinrich Graetz in 1871, this theory was popular for much of the twentieth century.However, it was increasingly questioned from the 1960s onward and the theory has been largely discredited.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 667684353.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Hypothetical late 1st-century council Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Location of Jamnia ( Yavne ) in modern Israel The Council of Jamnia , presumably held in Yavneh in the Holy Land , was a hypothetical late 1st-century council at which the canon of the Hebrew Bible was formerly believed to have been finalized and which may also have been the occasion when the Jewish authorities decided to exclude believers in Jesus as the Messiah from synagogue attendance, as referenced by interpretations of John 9:22 in the New Testament .The writing of the Birkat ha-Minim benediction is attributed to Shmuel ha-Katan at the supposed Council of Jamnia.The theory that Jamnia finalised the canon, first proposed by Heinrich Graetz in 1871, was popular for much of the 20th century. However, it was increasingly questioned from the 1960s onward, and the theory has been largely discredited. Journal of Biblical Literature . 32 : 125– 130.Klink III (2008), " Expulsion from the synagogue?
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 954729317.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Hypothetical late 1st-century council Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Location of Jamnia ( Yavne ) in modern Israel The Council of Jamnia (presumably Yavneh in the Holy Land ) was a council purportedly held late in the 1st century AD to finalize the development of the canon of the Hebrew Bible in response to Christianity. It has also been hypothesized to be the occasion when the Jewish authorities decided to exclude believers in Jesus as the Messiah from synagogue attendance, as referenced by interpretations of John 9:22 in the New Testament . The writing of the Birkat haMinim benediction is attributed to Shmuel ha-Katan at the supposed Council of Jamnia.The theory of a council of Jamnia that finalized the canon, first proposed by Heinrich Graetz in 1871, It was popular for much of the 20th century.However, it has been increasingly questioned since the 1960s onward, and the theory has now been largely discredited. Journal of Biblical Literature . 32 : 125– 130. Klink III (2008), " Expulsion from the synagogue?
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175699126.
The opening as it stood in 2025 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Hypothetical late 1st-century council Interpretation Hermeneutics Pesher Midrash Pardes Allegorical interpretation Historical-grammatical method Inspiration Literalism Alcohol Conspiracy theory Ethics Capital punishment Homosexuality Humor Incest Muhammad Prophecy Rape Serpents Sex Slavery Violence Warfare Women Perspectives Gnostic Islamic Quranic Inerrancy Infallibility Criticism of the Bible Biblical authority Outline of Bible-related topics Bible portal v t e Location of Jamnia ( Yavne ) in modern Israel The Council of Jamnia (presumably Yavneh in the Holy Land ) was a council that some claim was held late in the 1st century AD to finalize the development of the canon of the Hebrew Bible in response to Christianity; however others theorise, that the canon was set at an earlier date. The theory of a council of Jamnia that finalized the canon, first proposed by Heinrich Graetz in 1871, was popular for much of the 20th century. However, it has been increasingly questioned since the 1960s onward, and the theory has now been largely discredited.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298250059. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “time of consolidation in jamnia following the destruction of jerusalem and her temple in 70 ce”. Today it says “name given by 19th century jewish exegete heinrich graetz to a council he hypothesized had been convened by pha”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
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 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
time of consolidation in jamnia following the destruction of jerusalem and her temple in 70 ce
Now
name given by 19th century jewish exegete heinrich graetz to a council he hypothesized had been convened by pha
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.
