Wikipedia's first sentence called it “usual english translation of the hebrew "raqiya`"”. Today it says “depicted”.
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 2025 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 2025
Solid dome dividing the primal waters For the video game, see Firmament (video game) . An artist's depiction of the early Hebrew conception of the cosmos. The firmament ( raqia ), Sheol , and Tehom are depicted. In ancient near eastern cosmology , the firmament means a celestial barrier that separates the heavenly waters above from the Earth below. In biblical cosmology , the firmament ( Hebrew : רָקִ֫יעַ rāqīaʿ ) is the vast solid dome created by God during the Genesis creation narrative to separate the primal sea into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear. The concept was adopted into the subsequent Classical and Medieval models of heavenly spheres , but was dropped with advances in astronomy in the 16th and 17th centuries . Today it is known as a synonym for sky or heaven .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1292155361.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Firmament is the usual English translation of the Hebrew "raqiya`" (pronounced /raki'ja/ in English) meaning an extended solid surface or dome, considered to be a hemisphere above the ground in many Near Eastern cosmologies.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370908339.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The sun, planets and angels and the firmament.The firmament is the sky, conceived as a vast solid dome.According to the Genesis creation narrative , God created the firmament to separate the "waters above" the earth from those below.The word is anglicized from Latin firmamentum , which appears in the Vulgate , a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible."And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters" "Genesis 1:6" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666713692.
The opening as it stood in 2020 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The Old Testament cosmos. The sun, planets and angels and the firmament. In biblical cosmology , the firmament is the vast solid dome created by God on the second day to divide the primal sea (called tehom ) into upper and lower portions so that the dry land could appear: Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven.So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 962015262.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Solid dome dividing the primal waters For the video game, see Firmament (video game) .Early Hebrew conception of the cosmos.The firmament, Sheol and tehom are depicted. The sun, planets and angels and the firmament. In biblical cosmology , the firmament is a vast solid dome, created by God on the second day of creation, which divides the primal “waters” into upper and lower portions.The word is found in the King James Version, Tyndale, Douay-Rheims, and other early English translations of the Bible.Today it survives as a synonym for "heaven".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1171505129.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “usual english translation of the hebrew "raqiya`"”. Today it says “depicted”. 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
usual english translation of the hebrew "raqiya`"
Now
depicted
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.
