Wikipedia's first sentence called it “hebrew name for an ancient israelite lyre mentioned in the bible”. Today it says “ancient israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family”.
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
Ancient Israelite musical instrument This article is about the musical instrument. Kinnor ( Hebrew : כִּנּוֹר kīnnōr ) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kokhba coins. It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery. The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew . In Sadie Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments . [In New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, this is the caption accompanying the image:] Kinnor played before a king: ivory plaque (1350-1150 BC) from Megiddo (Archaeological Museum, Jerusalem).
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1270493150.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Kinnor ( ) (also Harp of David ) is the Hebrew name for an ancient Israelite lyre mentioned in the Bible ( Genesis iv. 21) and commonly translated as harp .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370352597.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Kinnor ( ) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument, the exact identification of which is unclear, but in the modern day is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particular the Bar Kochba coins.It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery.The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia .Three dissertations on ancient instruments from Babylon to Bach .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 607153354.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Kinnor ( ) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Old Testament .Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kochba coins. It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the "kinnor" based on this imagery. The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew .Musik in biblischer Zeit und orientalisches Musikerbe (in German).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 952312210.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Kinnor ( kīnnōr ) is an ancient Israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family, the first one to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . Its exact identification is unclear, but in the modern day it is generally translated as "harp" or "lyre", and associated with a type of lyre depicted in Israelite imagery, particularly the Bar Kokhba coins. It has been referred to as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people, and modern luthiers have created reproduction lyres of the kinnor based on this imagery. The word has subsequently come to mean violin in Modern Hebrew .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1116995835.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “hebrew name for an ancient israelite lyre mentioned in the bible”. Today it says “ancient israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family”. 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
hebrew name for an ancient israelite lyre mentioned in the bible
Now
ancient israelite musical instrument in the yoke lutes family
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.
