The word “martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak in 2010. Today the opening carries none. 1 remains further down the article, where a reader arriving from a search result does not go.
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. “martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 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 2010
Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes : contemporary bas-relief , Capitoline Museum , Rome Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning "to make sacred", from Old French , from Latin sacrificium : sacr , "sacred" + facere , "to make") is commonly known as the practice of offering food, objects (typically valuables), or the lives of animals or people to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship . The term is also used metaphorically to describe selfless good deeds for others or a short term loss in return for a greater gain, such as in a game of chess . Recently it has also come into use as meaning doing without something or giving something up.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 371267906.
The opening as it stood in 2005
Sacrifice (from a Middle verb meaning 'to make sacred', from Old , from Latin sacrificium : sacer, sacred; sacred + facere, to make) is commonly known as the practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or people to the gods , as an act of propitiation or worship . The term is also used metaphorically to describe selfless good deeds for others. Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief , Capitoline Museum , Rome
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 15971980.
The opening as it stood in 2015 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes : contemporary bas-relief , Capitoline Museum , Rome Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals to a higher purpose, in particular divine beings, as an act of propitiation or worship .While sacrifice often implies ritual killing , the term offering (Latin oblatio ) can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 662870145.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation) .Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes : contemporary bas-relief , Capitoline Museum , Rome Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship .Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly existed before that.Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations.Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178518124.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation) . Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes : contemporary bas-relief , Capitoline Museum , Rome. Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity .A sacrifice can serve as propitiation , or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly existed before that. Evidence of ritual human sacrifice can also be found back to at least pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica as well as in European civilizations. Varieties of ritual non-human sacrifices are practiced by numerous religions today.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1298069769. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1. Read the current article and compare.
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Sections that no longer exist
Present on 6 October 2023, absent today. A heading can vanish because the section was deleted or because it was renamed or merged, and we have not separated those here, so treat this as a list of what to check rather than a verdict.
Walter Burkert theory on origins of Greek sacrifice1,196 characters
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.