Egalitarian view #2 (Philip Payne): women couldn't be priests to prevent association with cult prostitution (Deuteronomy 23:17).

Philip Payne argues the 'most obvious reason' women couldn't be priests was the association of priestesses in heathen cults with prostitution, citing Deuteronomy 23:17. No other egalitarian scholar Mike read offered this explanation. The idea: God was preventing Israel's tendency to turn female priests into temple prostitutes.