In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishna”. Today it says “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishnah”.
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 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishna”. Today it says “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishnah”.
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
Rabbi Meir's tomb in Tiberias . Recent photo of the tomb.1Rabbi Meir or Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes (Rabbi Meir the miracle maker) was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna .2He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the third generation (139-163).3According to the Talmud, his father was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero who had converted to Judaism.4 His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara . He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.5This rule was required because, following an unsuccessful attempt to force the resignation of the head of the Sanhedrin , Rabbi Meir's opinions were noted, but not in his name, rather as "Others say...". "Meir" may have been a sobriquet . Rabbi Meir's real name is thought to have been Nahori or Misha. The name Meir , meaning "Illuminator," was given to him because he enlightened the eyes of scholars and students in Torah study.6
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 661103332.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Rabbi Meir's tomb in Tiberius Rabbi Meir or Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna . He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the second generation. According to a legend, his father was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero who had converted to Judaism. His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara . This rule was required because, following an unsuccessful attempt to force the resignation of the head of the Sanhedrin , Rabbi Meir's opinions were noted, but only as "Others say..." "Meir" is actually a sobriquet — his real name is thought to have been Nahori or Misha. The name Meir , meaning "Illuminator," was given to him because he enlightened the eyes of scholars and students in Torah study.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 371199459.
The opening as it stood in 2020 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Historical photo of Rabbi Meir's tomb in Tiberias . Recent photo of the tomb. Rabbi Meir ( ) or Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes (Rabbi Meir the miracle maker) was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna . He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139-163). He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah. His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 953422706.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
2nd century Jewish rabbi Rabbi Meir ( ) was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah .He was one of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139-163).He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah and is mentioned over 3,000 times in the Babylonian Talmud . His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1141943040.
The opening as it stood in 2025
2nd century Jewish rabbi Rabbi Meir ( Hebrew : רַבִּי מֵאִיר ) was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah .He was one of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139–163), and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva . He is the second most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah and is mentioned over 3,000 times in the Babylonian Talmud . His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297403303. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishna”. Today it says “jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishnah”. 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 between 2010 and 2025.
Then
jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishna
Now
jewish sage who lived in the time of the mishnah
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.
