During the last years of his life the great New Testament scholar Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP (who died November 11, 2013), was able to create and to publish four collections of his articles on First and Second Corinthians, Jerusalem, and Galatians. In Keys to Galatians Murphy-O'Connor also includes his responses to those who had written in critique or in support of his ideas. This gives the collection an atmosphere of freshness that adds to the special sense of intellectual energy one always gets when reading Murphy-O'Connor's work. Something has intrigued him, and he wants it to intrigue you as well. In this review I would like to simply comment on three of the essays that are typical of what is on offer.

In the sixth essay (“Galatians 2:15–16a: Whose Common Ground?,” 78–96), Murphy-O'Connor asks: If most commentators believe that all the rest of Paul's letters are commentary on Galatians 2:15–16a, why are they “all rather vague about why these verses are so crucial?” (78). First, when Paul says, “We who are Jews by nature” (Gal 2:15), he must be including the Judaizers. How can Paul assume that they, who insist on observance of the law, could “know” that “no one is justified by works of the law?” Second (and following T. L. Donaldson), Murphy-O'Connor shows that Jews like Paul would have believed that the law is operative until the eschaton and the arrival of the Messiah. They cannot coexist. That was why Paul persecuted the Christians. However, once he accepted Jesus as Messiah, ipso facto that meant the Law was no longer operative. It should have meant that for the intruders from James (Gal 2:12) (82–83). “We who are Jews by birth” must be universal. All Jewish converts who accept Jesus as Messiah must recognize that the authority of the Law has shifted to him.

Sometimes Murphy-O'Connor almost convinces you that his conclusion is just common sense and not the product of wide-ranging study and insight. For example, in the eighth essay (“Galatians 4:13–14 and the Recipients of Galatians,” 115–22), he asks whether the recipients of Galatians are in North or South Galatia. Scholars supporting one or the other all suggest that the community is spread across several cities, all at some distance from one another. But Paul evangelized by accident because he was incapacitated by an illness (some sort of eye trouble?): “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first” (Gal 4:13). This makes no sense if the Galatians were in several cities, unless his arrival in each place was the same, and that “is preposterous” (117). Thus, Murphy-O'Connor concludes that the audience of the Letter to the Galatians consisted of a group of house churches in one locale, not a group of assemblies in various cities. When Paul addresses the “churches in Galatia” (Gal 1:2), he is speaking ironically, putting them in their place as a small community against a vast background.

Finally, Murphy-O'Connor finds the new perspective on Paul “extremely improbable” (93). In explaining the meaning of the unique phrase “the law of Christ” (the ninth essay, “The Unwritten Law of Christ [Galatians 6:2],” 123–43), he rejects the views that suppose the phrase in any way refers to precepts of the Mosaic law that would continue to be binding (125–27). To avoid evil because of the compulsion of the law and not out of love was to become again enslaved to the elementary powers (Gal 4:3), to be under a pedagogue and so “no better than a slave” (4:1; 3:24). Rather, the phrase “the law of Christ” means “the law which is Christ” (130). Christ is a “living law.” Christ's life, framed by the Gospels and mediated by the Apostles, models the righteous life of the new covenant people as his living Spirit enables it (129).

Occasionally Murphy-O'Connor's speculations leave hard evidence behind, but his surmises are always ingenious, informative, and better than most other commentators' best guesses. A rudimentary knowledge of New Testament Greek, while not absolutely necessary, will increase the benefits of this collection as Murphy-O'Connor uses his keys to open up new vistas on the Letter to the Galatians.