Wikipedia's first sentence called it “less important of the two rivers of damascus”. Today it says “biblical river in syria”.
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
Pharpar (or Pharphar in the Douay–Rheims Bible ) is a biblical river in Syria. It is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the Nahr al-Awaj , also called Awaj (literally, 'crooked'), although if the reference to Damascus is limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament , Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the Awaj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or Lakes of the Marj , as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian Desert . John MacGregor , who gives a description of it in his book Rob Roy on the Jordan , affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering , the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation , might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:12). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1295292242.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Pharpar ( Douay-Rheims Bible:Douay-Rheims : Pharphar) is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus, Syria mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the A`waj (i.e. crooked ), though if the reference to Damascus be limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament , Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the A`waj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or Lakes of the Marj , as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian desert. John MacGregor , who gives an interesting description of it in his Rob Roy on the Jordan , affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering, the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation, might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 339043603.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Pharpar (or Pharphar in the Douay-Rheims Bible ) is a biblical river in Syria . It is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the A`waj (i.e. crooked ), though if the reference to Damascus be limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament , Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the A`waj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or Lakes of the Marj , as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian desert. John MacGregor , who gives an interesting description of it in his book "Rob Roy on the Jordan ", affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering, the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation, might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:12).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 646694287.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Pharpar (or Pharphar in the Douay-Rheims Bible ) is a biblical river in Syria . It is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the A‘waj (i.e. crooked ), though if the reference to Damascus be limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament , Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the A`waj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or Lakes of the Marj , as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian desert. John MacGregor , who gives an interesting description of it in his book "Rob Roy on the Jordan ", affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering , the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation , might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:12). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 965444476.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Pharpar (or Pharphar in the Douay–Rheims Bible ) is a biblical river in Syria . It is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the A‘waj (literally, 'crooked'), although if the reference to Damascus is limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament , Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the A`waj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or Lakes of the Marj , as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian Desert . John MacGregor , who gives a description of it in his book Rob Roy on the Jordan , affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering , the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation , might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel (2 Kings 5:12). One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1132110900.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “less important of the two rivers of damascus”. Today it says “biblical river in syria”. 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
less important of the two rivers of damascus
Now
biblical river in syria
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.