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Case file

Methuselah

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “nine hundred sixty and nine years”. Today it says “biblical patriarch and a figure in judaism”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “the longest lived of all figures mentioned in the Bible”. It now reads “Longest-lived Biblical figure”.
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 2005 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 2005

Methuselah (disambiguation) for other uses. Methuselah or Metushélach ( Hebrew מְתוּשֶׁלַח / מְתוּשָׁלַח "Man of the dart", or alternatively "when he dies, it shall be sent" Standard Hebrew Mətušélaḥ / Mətušálaḥ , Tiberian Hebrew Məṯûšélaḥ / Məṯûšālaḥ ) was the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . He reportedly reached the age of 969 years. According to the Book of Genesis 5:27: And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. ( ASV ) He is mentioned in Genesis as the son of Enoch and the father of Lamech (father of Noah ), whom he fathered at the age of 187.1 His name has become a general synonym for any living creature of great age.2 A close reading of the dates in the Old Testament reveals that Methuselah is said to have died the year of the Great Flood .3

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 15948009.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “nine hundred sixty and nine years”. Today it says “biblical patriarch and a figure in judaism”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “the longest lived of all figures mentioned in the Bible”. It now reads “Longest-lived Biblical figure”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '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 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

nine hundred sixty and nine years

Now

biblical patriarch and a figure in judaism

Sections that no longer exist

Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 1 section of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 636 characters shorter.

  • In popular culture
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.

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