“... At Qumran, the practice of uncles marrying nieces is understood to be implicitly condemned by Leviticus 18:13, even though the biblical text does not explicitly state this. Unlike other examples so far, we have a citation formula (“Moses said . . . ”) followed by a verbatim quote of the law in question. And also, for once, we have an explicit methodology. This takes the form of reasoning by analogy. The Qumran author here recognizes gender equality [...] Why does the Damascus Document go out of its way to provide us with such an explicit citation and interpretation? Bernstein notes that explicit textual support is often used in respect of laws that are the subject of dispute between the Qumran community and its opponents. In other words, the more contentious the issue, the more important it is to show that God is on your side. Flavius Josephus tells us that there were a number of uncle-niece marriages during this period (e.g., Jewish Antiquities 12:186–189), particularly in the royal court (e.g., Jewish Antiquities 17:19). There are good reasons for thinking that uncle-niece marriages reflect Second Temple practice, especially among the Pharisees. Permission for uncle-niece marriages is also found in rabbinic texts (Tractate Yevamot 62b–63a). Some scholars go so far as to say that the incest laws are one of the few examples where we see “direct criticism of the halakhic practices of the Pharisees.” Adopting a simple sense reading merely highlights the folly of the opposition. ...”