Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient north south route traversing the land of israel”. Today it says “ancient north–south route traversing the land of israel and the region of palestine”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) The Road of the Patriarchs or”. It now reads “Transportation route in ancient 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 2020 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 2020
Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) Way of the Patriarchs ( Derech haʾAvot Lit.1 Way (of) the Fathers ), is an ancient north south route traversing the land of Israel . The name is used by biblical scholars because of mentions in biblical narratives that it was frequently travelled by Abraham , Isaac and Jacob . It is also called the Hill Road or the Ridge Route because it follows the watershed ridge line of the Samarian and Judaean Mountains . It runs from Megiddo and Hazor south to Beersheba by way of Shechem , Bethel , Jerusalem , Ephrath and Hebron . Unlike the Via Maris and the King's Highway which were international roads crossing the territories of many peoples, the Ridge Route was wholly within the territory of ancient Israel. In modern times, the route roughly follows the original Highway 60 (without the more recent bypasses ), passing through Afula , Jenin , Nablus , Ramallah , Jerusalem , Bethlehem , Halhul , Hebron and Dhahiriya . After he enters the land he goes to Shechem. Then via Beth El he ends up in Hebron and later in Beer-Sheva .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 943601388.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) Way of the Patriarchs ( Derech haʾAvot Lit. Way (of) the Fathers ), is an ancient north south route traversing the land of Israel . The name is used by biblical scholars because it was frequently travelled by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as mentioned in biblical narratives. It is also called the Hill Road or the Ridge Route because it follows the watershed ridge line of the Samarian and Judaean Mountains . It runs from Megiddo and Hazor south to Beersheba by way of Shechem , Bethel , Jerusalem , Ephrath and Hebron . Unlike the Via Maris and the King's Highway which were international roads crossing the territories of many peoples, the Ridge Route was wholly within the territory of ancient Israel. In modern times, the route roughly follows the original Highway 60 (without the more recent bypasses ), passing through Afula , Jenin , Nablus , Ramallah , Jerusalem , Bethlehem , Halhul , Hebron and Dhahiriya .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 661985347.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) The Road of the Patriarchs or Way of the Patriarchs ( Derech haʾAvot Lit.Way (of) the Fathers ), is an ancient north–south route traversing the land of Israel and the region of Palestine .The modern Highway 60 (Israel-Palestine) follows roughly the route of the Way of the Patriarchs. The name is used by biblical scholars because of mentions in biblical narratives that it was frequently travelled by Abraham , Isaac and Jacob . It is also called the Hill Road or the Ridge Route because it follows the watershed ridge line of the Samarian and Judaean Mountains . It runs from Megiddo and Hazor south to Beersheba by way of Shechem , Bethel , Jerusalem , Ephrath and Hebron . Unlike the Via Maris and the King's Highway which were international roads crossing the territories of many peoples, the Ridge Route was wholly within the territory of ancient Israel.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1174880893.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Transportation route in ancient Israel Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) The Road of the Patriarchs or Way of the Patriarchs ( Hebrew : דֶּרֶךְ הֲאָבוֹת Derech haʾAvot Lit. Way (of) the Fathers ) is an ancient north–south route traversing the land of Israel and the region of Palestine . The modern Highway 60 (Israel-Palestine) follows roughly the route of the Way of the Patriarchs. The name is used by biblical scholars because of mentions in biblical narratives that it was frequently travelled by Abraham , Isaac and Jacob . It is also called the Hill Road or the Ridge Route because it follows the watershed ridge line of the Samarian and Judaean Mountains . It runs from Megiddo and Hazor south to Beersheba by way of Shechem , Bethel , Jerusalem , Ephrath and Hebron . Unlike the Via Maris and the King's Highway which were international roads crossing the territories of many peoples, the Ridge Route was wholly within the territory of ancient Israel.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1253308987. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “ancient north south route traversing the land of israel”. Today it says “ancient north–south route traversing the land of israel and the region of palestine”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Way of the Patriarchs (blue) with Via Maris (purple) and King's Highway (red) The Road of the Patriarchs or”. It now reads “Transportation route in ancient Israel”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
ancient north south route traversing the land of israel
Now
ancient north–south route traversing the land of israel and the region of palestine
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.
