Shoreshthe drift report · all case files
Case file

Jewish pirates

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “concentrated around jerusalem”. Today it says “jews who engaged in piracy”. This article was not filed under it. Today it is filed under Jews by occupation.
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. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010

Jewish archer on the prow of a pirate ship. (A painting from Jason's tomb ) Ancient Jewish life was concentrated around Jerusalem , located some distance from the sea. Therefore, Jews were initially not very interested in seafaring or navigation. After 142 BCE, Jews got ports of their own. Joppa ( Jaffa ), Ashdod and Gaza were added to Hasmonean dominions, and a small number of Jewish sailors was created. After that, historic references provide some evidences of Jews fighting as pirates. Jewish pirates were first mentioned by Josephus . There is a drawing of a pirate ship following two merchant ships at Jason's tomb . The drawing shows three ships, one of which is a war ship with Jason holding the bow and getting ready to shoot. The painting is dated back at early first century BCE . Seleucid Empire decay was a result of the Maccabean war , and was followed by an influx of Jewish and Arab pirates operating from Levant . Pompey 's journey to Judea may indicate a connection between Jewish and Cilician pirates . As a matter of fact there were so many Jews at the sea, some of which were pirates, during Pompey's time that king Antigonus II Mattathias was accused in sending them out in purpose. The English State Papers of 1521 bear evidences of daring Jewish pirates: As to Coron, it was reported at Rome a few days ago that Andrea Doria was informed that the famous Jewish pirate had prepared a strong fleet to meet the Spanish galleys which are to join Doria's nineteen Jews were experienced cartographers . Some great explorers such as Columbus and Vasco Da Gama are believed to have used those cartographic skills. Jews also worked as the ship navigators. The history of the Jewish people, the wars, the Diaspora , the Inquisitions , as well as knowledge and skills in ship navigation, were all contributing factors to the development of Jewish piracy.1

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 367131443.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “concentrated around jerusalem”. Today it says “jews who engaged in piracy”. This article was not filed under it. Today it is filed under Jews by occupation. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
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

concentrated around jerusalem

Now

jews who engaged in piracy

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.

← back to the drift report