Wikipedia's first sentence called it “franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope south of jerusalem”. Today it says “franciscan catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of even sapir”.
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 2015 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 2015
Monastery of St.1John in the Wilderness is a Franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of Even Sapir and south of Jerusalem , Israel .2In the Mamluk period the church was in hands of Georgians . Franciscans paid the Georgians rent for the building and adjacent garden. The Georgians made a final attempt to regain the monastery by legal means in 1596. The monastery celebrates the childhood wanderings of John the Baptist in this region. Born close by in Ein Karem according to tradition, Luke tells us that John "grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel ".3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 667177489.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The monastery Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness is a Franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope south of Jerusalem , Israel . The monastery celebrates the childhood wanderings of John the Baptist in this region.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370941697.
The opening as it stood in 2020 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The monastery The Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness is a Catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of Even Sapir .It is located a short distance from Ein Karem , the traditional birthplace of Saint John the Baptist , and south of Jerusalem , Israel .It is also known as Saint John in the Desert or the Desert of Saint John .The convent is the property of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 866428561.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness The monastery The Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness is a Catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of Even Sapir , and across the valley from Sataf . It is located a short distance from Ein Karem , the traditional birthplace of Saint John the Baptist , and south of Jerusalem , Israel . It is also known as Saint John in the Desert or the Desert of Saint John . The convent is the property of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1138006714.
The opening as it stood in 2025
The Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness is a Franciscan Catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of Even Sapir , Israel, and across the valley from Sataf . It is located a short distance from Ein Karem , the traditional birthplace of Saint John the Baptist , and south of Jerusalem . It is also known as Saint John in the Desert or the Desert of Saint John . The convent is the property of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1269043488. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope south of jerusalem”. Today it says “franciscan catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of even sapir”. 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
franciscan monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope south of jerusalem
Now
franciscan catholic monastery built next to a spring on a wooded slope just north of even sapir
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.
