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Case file

William F. Albright

In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “evangelical american methodist archaelogist”. Today it says “american archaeologist”.
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 “evangelical american methodist archaelogist”. Today it says “american archaeologist”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005

William Foxwell Albright ( May 24 , 1891 – September 19 / September 20 , 1971 ) was an evangelical American Methodist archaelogist , biblical authority , linguist and expert on ceramics . He was born in Coquimbo , Chile to Protestant missionaries Wilbur Finley and Zephine Viola Foxwell Albright, the eldest of six. Ruth Norton in 1921 in Jerusalem . The couple had four sons. Albright received his Ph.D. in 1913 from Johns Hopkins University , where he later taught from 1929 to 1959 and was director of the American school of Oriental Research at Johns Hopkins. One of his major achievements was confirming the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scrolls following their discovery. In 1923 he made the first significant excavation of a tumulus near Jerusalem --possibly the site where an ancient king of Judah was memorialized. He edited the Anchor Bible volumes on Jeremiah, Matthew, and Revelation; his books include Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, The Archaeology of Palestine: From the Stone Age to Christianity, and The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra . Albright institute of Archaeological research, a branch of the American Schools of Oriental Research is located in Jerusalem .1

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16091959.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “evangelical american methodist archaelogist”. Today it says “american archaeologist”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '232025
antisemitism000022
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

evangelical american methodist archaelogist

Now

american archaeologist

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.

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