2:16 This verse is one of the most important and debated in the Letters of Paul. It is his first explicit reference to justification (using the δικ- root), and its contrast between ἔργα νόμου (erga nomou, works of the law) and πίστις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (pistis Iēsou Christou, faith of Jesus Christ, or “Christ faith”) touches on a point vital to Paul’s theology. Much of the rest of Galatians is devoted to elaborating this fundamental contrast (Stanton 1996: 101). The central claim of the verse comes