Wikipedia's first sentence called it “category of hermits and anchorites”. Today it says “male and female christian hermits and anchorites who lived in the first millennium of the christian era”.
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.
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The opening as it read in 2025
Category of hermits and anchorites Saint Paul, "The First Hermit" , Jusepe de Ribera , Museo del Prado (1640) The grazers or boskoi (in Ancient Greek : βοσκοί , romanized : boskoí ) are a category of hermits and anchorites , men and women, in Christianity , that developed in the first millennium of the Christian era , mainly in the Christian East , in Syria , Palestine , Pontus , Mesopotamia , and Egypt . However, the majority of them were situated in Palestine and Syria . They derived their name from their practices, which consisted of nourishing themselves only with raw plants, often on all fours, and living in a wild manner, "among the beasts." They were dressed in clothes made exclusively from leaves and vegetation, or simply completely naked . Furthermore, they did not cultivate plants and did not use fire. They were linked to another type of hermits called the "dendrites", which seemed to have the same way of living but in trees. The grazers may perhaps be among the inspirations for the wild man archetype, a legendary figure in medieval Europe . The Sabaite heritage in the Orthodox Church from the fifth century to the present . "Quand l'ascèse devient péché: les excès dans le monachisme byzantin d'après les témoignages contemporains" . A hermit's cookbook: monks, food and fasting in the Middle Ages .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1291676648.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
The grazers or boskoi (in ) are a category of hermits and anchorites , men and women, in Christianity , that developed in the first millennium of the Christian era , mainly in the Christian East , in Syria , Palestine , Pontus , Mesopotamia , and Egypt . However, the majority of them were situated in Palestine and Syria . They derived their name from their practices, which consisted of nourishing themselves only with raw plants, often on all fours, and living in a wild manner, "among the beasts." They were dressed in clothes made exclusively from leaves and vegetation, or simply completely naked . Furthermore, they did not cultivate plants and did not use fire. They were linked to another type of hermits called the "dendrites", which seemed to have the same way of living but in trees. The grazers may perhaps be among the inspirations for the wild man archetype, a legendary figure in medieval Europe . The Sabaite heritage in the Orthodox Church from the fifth century to the present . "Quand l'ascèse devient péché : les excès dans le monachisme byzantin d'après les témoignages contemporains" . A hermit's cookbook: monks, food and fasting in the Middle Ages .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1176688895.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “category of hermits and anchorites”. Today it says “male and female christian hermits and anchorites who lived in the first millennium of the christian era”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2023, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
category of hermits and anchorites
Now
male and female christian hermits and anchorites who lived in the first millennium of the christian era
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.
