Was the bible (OLD TESTAMENT ONLY) really revolutionary at its time, morally speaking? Examples: 1. Leave edges of grain field for the poor 2. Set a slave free after 7 years Were these and other moral laws new to the world then? Did they have impact?

Interesting question but possibly a little skewed.

Back in OT times the vast majority of the population were illiterate. There was no OT, as such, though there were many scrolls that were painstakingly copies by scribes who were fastidious in their work. These contained the scriptures that later became the Torah and the Old Testament.

So the Christian Bible -- even its OT -- made no impact at the time, though it's teachings, as delivered by the priests, most certainly did.

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BTW you'll get better answers if you don't hide behind anonymous. I rarely answer anonymous questions and lots of other people feel the same.

As Didge points out there was no OT until the 4th century CE. There was however the Tanakh, the jewish writings. The first section of the Tanakh was discovered in the 8th century BCE under the rule of King Josiah and at the time it was only Chapters 12-27 of Deuteronomy that contains the Law or Torah. Most of the rest of the writings were stories and legends that often were "campfire" stories that eventually were written down to explain the circumstances during the time of the writers.

The Torah or laws were not unique, there had been laws long before the Torah. Egyptians had similar laws, as did the Babylonians. The Code of Hammurabi is one such code that long predates the Torah and it is suspected that many of the laws contained in the Torah are based on this code. However the Torah is culture specific to the Hebrew peoples, whereas the code of Hammurabi, was not culture specific.