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Case file

Quqites

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “group of people who followed a samaritan”. Today it says “group who followed an iranian type of gnosticism in 2nd-century ad erbil and in the vicinity of what is today n”.
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 2015

Quqites were a group of people who followed a Samaritan , Iranian type of Gnosticism in 2nd century AD Erbil and vicinity in what is today northern Iraq .1 The sect was named after their founder Quq, known as "the potter". The Quqite heresy arose in Edessa, Syria , in the 2nd century, and it is named for the founder Quq, which means "pitcher", or "jug". The Quqites stressed the Hebrew Bible , made changes in the New Testament, associated twelve prophets with twelve apostles, and held that the latter corresponded to the same number of gospels .2 The Jewish Christian group called the Ebionites used a Gospel of the Twelve, which is considered Quqite, and Marcion may have had some dealing with the Quqites. As late as 410, the Armenian bishop Marutha of Maipherkat included the Quqites in his catalogue of heresies, a document he used as ammunition at the synod in Seleukia-Ktesiphon in that year.3 Marutha names several characteristics of the Quqites, none of them reflecting particularly Mandaean ideas. A 6th-century presbyter of Nisibis (Syria), Barhad Besabba, also testifies to the Quqites, who, he says, mixed Chaldean wisdom with the Bible. Quqites: Sect named after their founder Quq, known as "the potter" because his name derives from the Syrian quqa, "pitcher".4 The Quqites were based around Edessa in Syria in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.5 Their beliefs seem to have been eclectic, with elements of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, astrology and Gnosticism, and they were listed by Epharaim of Syria along with Valentinians, followers of Bardaisan , and Manichaeans as local heresies.6 A Dictionary of Gnosticism .

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 644007019.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “group of people who followed a samaritan”. Today it says “group who followed an iranian type of gnosticism in 2nd-century ad erbil and in the vicinity of what is today n”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
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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

group of people who followed a samaritan

Now

group who followed an iranian type of gnosticism in 2nd-century ad erbil and in the vicinity of what is today n

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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