Rearranging the Ten Commandments… the worst sin

Here is the order of the Ten Commandments according to Exodus 20 in the Masoretic Text:

1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Using the name of the LORD
4. Keeping Sabbath
5. Honouring father & mother
6. No murder
7. No adultery
8. No stealing
9. No false witness
10. No coveting

But in the Septuagint (in Exodus 20, but not Deuteronomy 5), The “second table” is rearranged, so that it begins with adultery rather than murder:

1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Using the name of the LORD
4. Keeping Sabbath
5. Honouring father & mother
6. No adultery
7. No stealing
8. No murder
9. No false witness
10. No coveting

When Pseudo-Phocylides appears to summarise the Decalogue (circa 50 bce – 40 ce), he seems to begin with a version of this rearranged second table, before summarising the first table:

1. No adultery or homosexual passion
2. No deceit or bloodshed
3. No unjust wealth
4. No taking what is another’s
5. No lying
6. Honour God, and then your parents

And this sort of prioritising of topics (beginning with the problem of sexual vice) seems to have been a relatively common way of summarising how God thinks people ought to live, from the perspective of Hellenistic Judaism… 

The Book of Jubilees (circa 164-100 bce) indicates that sexual immorality is the greatest sin (33:20), quitessentially expressing the impurity of the Gentiles.

Book III of the Sibylline Oracles (circa 80 - 40 bce) seems to summarise the impure idolatry of the Gentiles as involving:

1. Sexual depravity (including adultery and homosexual activity)
2. Unrestrained greed (envying and chasing wealth)

The Psalms of Solomon (circa 65 – 30 bce) characterise the chief sins of Israel as the Gentile-like exhibition of sexual immorality and impurity.  So, for example, PsSol 8:7-14 explains why God’s judgement is coming upon Israel:

1. Sexual sin (incest, v9; adultery, v10)
2. Impurity (plundering God’s sanctuary, v11, offering impure sacrifices, v12)

And the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (in terms of final redaction, early Christian) evidence a similar logic in lists of ethical topics:

1. Sexual Immorality, adultery
2. Greed
3. Looking after bodily needs
4. Covetous desire
5. Stealing
6. Arrogance
7. Lying
8. Evil-speaking
9. Zeal
10. Destruction
11. Deceit
12. Fighting

It seems that, for a Hellenistic audience, Godward/godless lifestyle is summarised in terms reminiscent of a rearranged second table of the Decalogue, prioritising the avoidance of sexual immorality.  Curious…