A New Join of Two Fragments of 4QcryptA Serekh haEdah and Its Implications

Two cryptic A fragments of Serekh haEdah from cave 4 are hereby physically joined, and a third one constitutes a distant join. The composite text parallels 1QSa 1: 8–12 albeit with significant variants. The join is proven here in terms of the continuity of papyrus fibers and partial letters, as well as by the coherent composite text. The join requires separating a fragment that had been assembled by Milik. Substantially, although the joined fragments had been assigned in DJD 36 to different copies, they evidently constitute one and the same fragment. This join thus calls into question the classification of 8–9 different copies of the Serekh in cryptic script.