According to Gerda Lerner, the idea that prostitution developed from religious sexuality is too simple. Lerner makes a clear distinction between the terms of "Cultic sexual service" and "commercial prostitution." By examining certain religious acts performed in Babylonia during the turn of the third millennium b.c., Lerner lists out the different classes and sub-classes of female sexual servants within the temple. In short, the purpose of sexual intercourse performed within the temple was to please certain gods affiliated with fertility, to promote general prosperity throughout by offering up sexual services. Sometimes the male patrons would leave a donation for the temple. Lerner asserts that the introduction of the system of slavery during this period is more likely responsible for the emergence of prostitution. To refer to people as mere property is essential to the ideology of slavery, which places humans as a commodity. This same concept emerges with "commercial prostitution," that acquiring female concubines and selling their sexual service was used as a display of wealth among the upper class in ancient Mesopotamia. Family members, such as farmers, would use the virgins daughters as payment against substantial debt. It was economically viable and common, for indebted family members to be sold into slavery and hetaerism, to provide financial relief for the family as a whole. In summary, prostitution most likely derived from the prevalence of slavery rather than the perversion of religious acts.

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