In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship”. Today it says “city in the southern part of the area called by ancient jewish sources babylonia”.
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 “name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship”. Today it says “city in the southern part of the area called by ancient jewish sources babylonia”.
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
Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia , located west of the Euphrates River .1 It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes , wheat , and barley . It was also a major center of Torah scholarship, and home of an important yeshiva , which, together with the yeshivas in Pumbedita and Nehardea , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud . According to Rav Sherira Gaon , Sura ( Hebrew : סורא ) was identical to the town of Mata Mehasia ( מתא מחסיא ), which is also mentioned in the Talmud, however, Matha-Mehasia is cited there, many times, either as a nearby town or a suburb of Sura , and the Talmudist academy there was sometimes moved or served as an additional branch. The academy at Sura was founded by Rav ( Abba Arika ) in the third century. A Syriac source describes it as a town completely inhabited by Jews, situated between Māḥōzē (i.e. Al-Mada'in ) and Al-Hira in Southern Iraq. A responsum of Rabbi Natronai Gaon says that Sura was about 6 km from Al-Hira. סורא , Da'at Encyclopedia; Article Gil, Moshe (2004). Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 369010600.
The opening as it stood in 2005
Sura was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia that was a major center of Talmud scholarship, that together with the city of Pumbeditha , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 16868111.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Place in Iraq Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia , located west of the Euphrates River . It was well known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes , wheat , and barley . It was also a major center of Torah scholarship, and home of an important yeshiva , which, together with the yeshivas in Pumbedita and Nehardea , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud . According to Rav Sherira Gaon , Sura ( Hebrew : סורא ) was identical to the town of Mata Mehasia ( מתא מחסיא ), which is also mentioned in the Talmud, however, Matha-Mehasia is cited in the Talmud , many times, either as a nearby town or a suburb of Sura, and the Talmudist academy in Matha-Mehasia was sometimes moved or served as an additional branch to the Talmudist academy of Sura. The academy at Sura was founded by Rav ( Abba Arika ) in the third century. A Syriac source describes it as a town completely inhabited by Jews, situated between Māḥōzē (i.e. Al-Mada'in ) and Al-Hira in Southern Iraq. A responsum of Rabbi Natronai Gaon says that Sura was about 6 km from Al-Hira. סורא , Da'at Encyclopedia; Article Gil, Moshe; David Strassler (2004). Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 659351099.
The opening as it stood in 2020 6 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Place in Iraq Sura was a city in the southern part of the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia , located east of the Euphrates . It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes , wheat , and barley . It was also a major center of Torah scholarship and home of an important yeshiva - the Sura Academy - which, together with the yeshivas in Pumbedita and Nehardea , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 959641593.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Place in Iraq Sura ( ) was a city in the southern part of the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia , located east of the Euphrates . It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes , wheat , and barley . It was also a major center of Torah scholarship and home of an important yeshiva —the Sura Academy —which, together with the yeshivas in Pumbedita and Nehardea , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1145322711.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Place in Iraq Sura ( Syriac : ܫܘܪܐ ) was a city in the southern part of the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia , located east of the Euphrates . It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes , wheat , and barley . It was also a major center of Torah scholarship and home of an important yeshiva —the Sura Academy —which, together with the yeshivas in Pumbedita and Nehardea , gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1254206944. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship”. Today it says “city in the southern part of the area called by ancient jewish sources babylonia”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
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 2005 and 2025.
Then
name of a city in ancient babylonia that was a major center of talmud scholarship
Now
city in the southern part of the area called by ancient jewish sources babylonia
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.
