Wikipedia's first sentence called it “name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship that”. Today it says “ancient city located in modern-day iraq”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Babylonian city near modern-day Fallujah, Iraq”. It now reads “Babylonian city located somewhere in modern Iraq”.
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.
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The opening as it read in 2020
Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha , Pumpedita , or Pumbedisa ; ), literally meaning in Aramaic: "The Mouth of the River," was the name of a city from the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia , close to the modern-day city of Fallujah , in Anbar Province, Iraq. The city had a large Jewish population and was famed for its Talmudic academy scholarship that, together with the city of Sura , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud . The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century. The academy was established after the destruction of the academy of Nehardea . Nehardea, being the capital city, was destroyed during the Persian-Palmyrian war . The twelfth-century travel account of Benjamin of Tudela gives this description : Two days [from Mosul is] Juba, which is Pumbeditha in Neharde’a , containing about two thousand Jews, some of them being eminent scholars. Eliakim are the principal of them. Here the traveller may see the sepulchres of R. Sh'muel opposite to two synagogues - which they erected during their lives - and the sepulchre of R. Bosthenai, the prince of the captivity , of R. Guy Le Strange in his geography of Mesopotamia in the Abbasid era constructed from Ibn Serapion , (ca.900), cites the possible location for Pumbedita: The Nahr-al-Badāt (or Budāt) was a long drainage channel taken from the left bank of the Kūfah arm of the Euphrates, at a day’s journey to the north of Kūfah city, probably near the town of Kanṭarah-al-Kūfah, otherwise called Al-Kanāṭīr, ‘the Bridges,’ which doubtless carried the high road across the Badāt. This city of ‘the Bridges’ lay 27 miles south of the great Sūrā bridge of boats, and 28 miles north of Kūfah; and it probably lay adjacent to, or possibly was identical with, the Hebrew Pombedita (Arabic Fam-al-Badāt , ‘mouth of the Badāt canal’)”, mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela as a great centre of Jewish learning in Babylonia.1A Geonic Commentary on a passage taken from the Babylonian Talmud ( Kiddushin 72a-b) and discovered among the faded manuscripts found in the Cairo Geniza in Fustat , Old Cairo, reads: "...Thus do we say, Baḏitha levaī (i.e. the river is teeming), everyone comes in and takes out fish. When a great number starts to come inside, they are trapped and brought out from there. Now, this matter takes place on the intermediate days of the feast. As for Baḏitha , it [means] river, while its mouth is called Fūm Baḏitha (Pumbeditha). Now, however, in the Arabian tongue it is called Al-Badeāh ( al-Badiya )." The itinerary of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela; transl., edit.2The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem Conquest to the Time of Timur .3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 913218374.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha , Pumpedita , or Pumbedisa ; Hebrew : פומבדיתא ) was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia that was a major center of Talmud scholarship that, together with the city of Sura , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud . The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century. The Babylonian Talmud mentions an incident where Rav Sheishet, a famous Rabbi/judge from Nehardea, uses Pumbedita as part of a jest in an argument with Rav Amram after Rav Amram made a forced argument regrding whether children can assume ownership of a father's property in a case of doubtful transference of real property rights. After Rav Amram stated his position, Rav Sheishet retorted: "Are you from Pumbedita, where they push an elephant through the eye of a needle?" ( Baba Metzia , 38b) As in most debates, the jest was not the end of the argument. Pumbeditha was known as having a large Jewish population. The modern-day city of Fallujah stands in its place.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 370017947.
The opening as it stood in 2015 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha , Pumpedita , or Pumbedisa ; ) was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia close to the modern-day city of Fallujah .The city had a large Jewish population and was famed for its Talmudic academy scholarship that, together with the city of Sura , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud . The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel in the late third century. The academy was established after the destruction of the academy of Nehardea .Nehardea, being the capital city, was destroyed during the Persian-Palmyrian war.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 648372473.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 13 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Babylonian city near modern-day Fallujah, Iraq Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha , Pumpedita , or Pumbedisa ; Pūmbəḏīṯāʾ , "The Mouth of the River," ) was an ancient city located near the modern-day city of Fallujah , Iraq .It is known for having hosted the Pumbedita Academy . A Geonic Commentary on a passage taken from the Babylonian Talmud ( Kiddushin 72a-b) and discovered in the Cairo Geniza reads: "...Thus do we say, Baḏitha levaī (i.e. the river is teeming), everyone comes in and takes out fish. When a great number starts to come inside, they are trapped and brought out from there. Now, this matter takes place on the intermediate days of the feast. As for Baḏitha , it [means] river, while its mouth is called Fūm Baḏitha (Pumbeditha). Now, however, in the Arabian tongue it is called Al-Badeāh ( al-Badiya )."
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1117112858.
The opening as it stood in 2025 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Babylonian city near modern-day Fallujah, Iraq Pumbedita ( Jewish Babylonian Aramaic : פוּם בְּדִיתָא Pūm Bəḏīṯāʾ , "Mouth of the Bedita" ) was an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq . It is known for having hosted the Pumbedita Academy . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).Lĕšonénu (in Hebrew). 61 (1/2): 87– 109, esp. 90 [4] n. 14.The river "Bedita" has not been identified.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1262074403. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship that”. Today it says “ancient city located in modern-day iraq”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Babylonian city near modern-day Fallujah, Iraq”. It now reads “Babylonian city located somewhere in modern Iraq”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
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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
name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship that
Now
ancient city located in modern-day iraq
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.
