those whose claim to righteousness is based on the “works of the law” are “under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ ” To be sure, Paul is countering, in Galatians, the claim that gentile believers ought to be circumcised and keep Jewish food and festival laws; but when he insists that “by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16), his point (as the whole argument of Galatians makes clear) is that,