I believe you're mistake about this Hang on now, it;s not just a technicality From Day One married men were eligible to be ordained priests. BUT priests, once ordained, were not to get married.
It was the sequence pf thing.
Married --> priest OK
Priest --> married never OK
Like for the Permanent Deacons in our day.
But now a married person CANT become a priest, right?
Speaking as a man, asking a man to give up marital relations is asking for YUGE trouble.
It is a driving force that is like no other.
I am for priests being allowed to marry.
Or at least BE married :)
You should know better than that. "From Day One" no one was ever ordained as a "priest" in the NT church, since all believers are priests (which word is otherwise used exclusively for Jewish or pagan priests) and NT clergy are never distinctively titled "priest" despite the abundance occurrences of that word, but instead they are called presbuteros (senior/elder) or episkopos (superintendent/overseer) which describes one office, (Titus 1:5-7).
And do not try to pass off that presbuteros means priest or indulge in etymological fallacy, which you should also know better than to try.
As for "once ordained, were not to get married" that is another addition to Scripture, and contrary to the declaration of the only 2 celibate apostles, that they had "the power/authority to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas." (1 Corinthians 9:5)
And who also taught that being married was the norm for pastors (1Tim. 3:1-7) and that being celibate was a gift that not all had. (1Co. 7:7)
It is thus presumptuous to suppose virtually all who are called to the pastorate have that gift, and that this is to be the norm.