Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 2001 book about the archaeology of palestine and its relationship to the origins of the hebrew bible”. Today it says “a 2001 book by israel finkelstein”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible”. It now reads “2001 book about the archaeology of Israel”.
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.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 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 October 6, 2023
2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts , a book by Israel Finkelstein , Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University , and Neil Asher Silberman , an archaeologist, historian and contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine published in 2001 by Simon & Schuster using its imprint The Free Press and reprinted in 2002 using its Touchstone imprint, discusses the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins and content of the Hebrew Bible .1 Finkelstein and Silberman contend that the composition of the Bible began in the Iron Age , centuries after the events of Israel's founding myths —the patriarchs and the Exodus from Egypt. They argue that numerous biblical passages conflict with the Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeological record of the Land of Israel, and that the text reflects an authorship bias toward the Kingdom of Judah at the expense of the Kingdom of Israel . They also reject the historical plausibility of a prosperous united kingdom of Israel and Judah ruled by David and Solomon from Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE, instead positing this narrative as an ideological construct promoted by late Judahite kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah . The book was both praised and criticized by biblical scholars for its reconstruction of ancient Israel's history. The Bible unearthed: archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts . New York: The Free Press , a division of Simon & Schuster . p.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1178678558.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts is a 2001 book about the archaeology of Palestine and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible . The authors are Israel Finkelstein , Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University , and Neil Asher Silberman , a contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 365527445.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts is a 2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible . The authors are Israel Finkelstein , Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University , and Neil Asher Silberman , a contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 666314264.
The opening as it stood in 2020
2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts , a book published in 2001, discusses the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins and content of the Hebrew Bible .The authors are Israel Finkelstein , Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University , and Neil Asher Silberman , an archaeologist, historian and contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 953258100.
The opening as it stood in 2025
2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts is a 2001 a book by Israel Finkelstein , Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University , and Neil Asher Silberman , an archaeologist, historian and contributing editor to Archaeology Magazine . The book discusses the archaeology of ancient Israel and its relationship to the origins and content of the Hebrew Bible . Finkelstein and Silberman contend that the composition of the Bible began in the Iron Age , centuries after the events of Israel's founding myths —the patriarchs and the Exodus from Egypt. They argue that numerous biblical passages conflict with the Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeological record of the Land of Israel, and that the text reflects an authorship bias toward the Kingdom of Judah at the expense of the Kingdom of Israel . They also reject the historical plausibility of a prosperous united kingdom of Israel and Judah ruled by David and Solomon from Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE, instead positing this narrative as an ideological construct promoted by late Judahite kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah . The book was both praised and criticized by biblical scholars for its reconstruction of ancient Israel's history. The Bible unearthed: archaeology's new vision of ancient Israel and the origin of its sacred texts (1 ed.). New York: The Free Press , a division of Simon & Schuster . p.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296357630. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “a 2001 book about the archaeology of palestine and its relationship to the origins of the hebrew bible”. Today it says “a 2001 book by israel finkelstein”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “2001 book about the archaeology of Israel and its relationship to the origins of the Hebrew Bible”. It now reads “2001 book about the archaeology of Israel”. 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 since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
a 2001 book about the archaeology of palestine and its relationship to the origins of the hebrew bible
Now
a 2001 book by israel finkelstein
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.
