How has Wikipedia's Ephrath article changed?

Wikipedia's first sentence called it "biblical name of the ancient city in the judean hills". Today it says "variant spellings of the same hebrew name". We saved the article's opening at 6 moments between 2005 and 2025, and every claim links the exact revision.

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How Wikipedia rewrote the Ephrath article

The opening as it read in 2005

Ephrath or Ephratah is the Biblical name of the ancient city in the Judean Hills, south of Bethlehem , now called Efrat in the West Bank . It is the urban center of Gush Etzion . Its chief rabbi is Shlomo Riskin , a well-known American rabbi formerly of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City . It is an ancient place: on the road between Ephrath and Bethel , Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin ( Genesis, xxxv:19). Today the population numbers above 10,000, with many families originally from the United States and elsewhere in the Anglo world. A short distance from Ephrath was the small town of Bethlehem , which has assumed greater importance as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth .¹ The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem has always been accounted by Christians a fulfillment of the prophecy in Micah (5:2): "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." ( King James Version ).² As Beth-lehem-Judah ( 1 Samuel 17:12) is in the territory of Judah, so Beth-lehem Ephratah is in the territory of Ephrath. Ephrath is sometimes confused with Bethlehem itself: even the Jewish Encyclopedia (1908) lists Ephrath as "another name for Bethlehem ( Genesis xxxv. 19, xlviii. 7; Ruth i. 2, iv. 11; Psalms cxxxii. 6; Micah v. 1)." The interested reader will want to pursue the citations, however. Assuredly the purely traditional "tomb of Rachel" as now venerated is in a suburb of Bethlehem. Ephrath was already a settlement in the Bronze Age. Archeology by Rivka Gonen, summarized in 1979, revealed a cemetery consisting of a tumulus built over a platform structure and some 27 Bronze Age burial caves of the shaft-tomb type, many of which had been reused over long stetches of time. These tombs were reused in the Middle Bronze Age.³ Ephrath was the wife of Caleb (son of Hezron) and mother of Hur ( I Chronicles ii. 19 and 50; iv. 4).⁴

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15981497.

The opening as it stood in 2010 12 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Ephrath or Ephratah ( ) is the name of a Biblical place or tribe. The first mention of Ephrath occurs in Genesis , in reference to where Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin and is buried on the road from Bethel . A very old tradition is that Ephrath refers to Bethlehem , and thus that she died on the way there, reflected by the ancient Tomb of Rachel at the city's entrance. However, some modern scholars have placed this location closer to Bethel , in the vicinity of Ramallah , based on verses in Samuel I and Jeremiah . A prime candidate according to this view is a site known in Arabic as "kubur beni israil" ("burial of the Children of Israel "), and is adjacent to the "Farah" wadi , whose name recalls "Ephrath". [1] Throughout much of the Bible, Ephrath is a description for members of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim , as well as for the possible founders of Bethlehem. The birth of Jesus in nearby Bethlehem in the territory of or "towards Ephrata" ( Bethlehem Ephrata ) has always been accounted by Christians a fulfillment of the prophecy in Micah (5:2) [5:1 by Judaism 's count]: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." ( King James Version ). Ephrath was the wife of Caleb (son of Hezron) and mother of Hur ( I Chronicles ii. 19 and 50; iv. 4). According to Jewish tradition this was another name for Miriam .

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The opening as it stood in 2015 8 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Ephrath or Ephrathah or Ephratah ( ) is the name of a biblical place and a personal name meaning "fruitful". "Ephratah" in Holman Bible Dictionary (Holman: Tennessee, 2003), 500-501

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 664830132.

The opening as it stood in 2020

Ephrath or Ephrathah or Ephratah ( ) is the name of a biblical place and a personal name meaning "fruitful". "Ephratah" in Holman Bible Dictionary (Holman: Tennessee, 2003), 500-501

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 942388807.

The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear

Historical name for Bethlehem Ephrath or Ephrathah or Ephratah ( ) is a biblically referenced former name of Bethlehem , meaning "fruitful". It is also a personal name.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1168134024.

The opening as it stood in 2025

Historical name for Bethlehem Ephrath or Ephrathah or Ephratah ( Hebrew : אֶפְרָת \ אֶפְרָתָה ) is a biblically referenced former name of Bethlehem , meaning "fruitful". It is also a personal name.

Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1263743490. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.

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