>>14043477the new testament is a massive leap in not just religious and philosophical thought, but also in literature.
Compare other works from the first and second century, and you see a sea change in cognition. The ability to imagine things more fully and represent them more realistically with more concise language is very much advanced.
I think you see this more clearly in the development of the "riddle" like passages in the NT. Very often, jews would come to Jesus and say "you can't do that!" etc. For example, you can't work on a Sunday.
Inevitably Jesus would calmly respond in clear and easily understandable terms how the jews were wrong. For example "god made the sabbath for man, not man for the sabbath" etc.
This shows three things.
First it's a development of the riddles and mysteries of the classical and more primitive eras. Those dealt with abstracts and were merely clever turns of phrase rather than ways to understand life. Take for example the riddle of the Sphinx. It's certainly on a lower level.
Second, it introduces the central theme of the NT which is mercy, and applying god's laws with interpretation and leniency. Emphasis on Wisdom over wrote Knowledge. The jews (and protestants) got this fundamentally wrong.
Lastly it's the origin of the modern mystery story, where an intelligent man explains in clear terms how to understand something (a crime or other).
All of this has a debt to Plato and Aristotle plainly, and it the next step in the philosophical development of mankind.
The koran is for fucking retards.
