issues which had dominated the immediately preceding context in Gal. 2 (circumcision—2:1–10; food laws—2:11–14), for these were precisely the test cases of Jewish distinctiveness over against Gentiles which were in danger of splitting the Jesus movement. In thus introducing the phrase immediately after his report of the two encounters Paul could expect his readers to recognize that ‘works of the law’ summed up the issue posed by these two test cases in particular; that the two encounters had made