560 Review and Expositor 113(4) and perfect tense expresses stative aspect. Although Decker reflects linguistic terminology of ver- bal aspect theorists accurately, a muddle results for an introductory student who would certainly expect the perfect tense to have perfective aspect. Perhaps terminology for aspects not parallel to that of traditional tense categories could be created with better effect. Fourth, Decker describes Greek linguistic categories (such as cases and tenses/moods unfamiliar to English speakers) as complex but not mysterious, in order to prevent students from investing simple elements of language with “magical,” code-like qualities. For instance, he locates the aorist tense-form as “the default verb form” and therefore the “one that writers use when they do not want to say anything in particular about a situation” (p. 118). This approach to language directly contra- dicts some basic textbooks that glamorize the “unlocking” of grammatical elements such as the aorist in what Decker terms the “golden nuggets” approach. He prefers to “place the least weight on the individual grammatical pieces and the greatest weight on statements in their context” (p. xvi). Decker includes many helpful pedagogical aids throughout his work that would be beneficial to students studying in a traditional setting, but would be even more valuable to long-distance or online learners whose classroom time is limited or nonexistent. When appropriate, he references other grammars that give a fuller discussion of a topic so a student can continue to pursue any confusing issues. He explains how to use standard lexicons, reproducing a page from each and explaining the various elements and abbreviations (included are Danker’s Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the NT, 51; Louw and Nida’s Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 52; and Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich’s Greek-English Lexicon of the NT and Other Early Christian Literature, 279). He also gives “Now You Try It” segments within the Reading Exercises section of each chapter, where he walks a student through a translation exercise by asking guiding questions as a teacher would in a classroom setting, thus helping students learn to translate step-by-step. A few minor items appear as weaknesses or errors in the work. Some explanations of grammati- cal topics are covered in several different places, so that students might not be able to easily grasp how they fit together. For example, in the discussion of nouns, Decker introduces the rare feminine second-declension paradigm in his initial chart showing first- and second-declension noun para- digms (p. 37), but does not mention the similarly rare masculine first-declension until later, when he spends a paragraph explaining it but does not provide the paradigm (p. 55). Finally, he adds that paradigm by itself, without comparison to the regular first-declension patterns (p. 61). Space could be saved and confusion could be avoided simply by introducing this paradigm in a column along- side the others, where students could more easily see how they all relate. A couple of mathematical errors lead to false statements: Decker says that the NT has a ratio of 1.6 participles per verse, but he bases that on the number of verses with participles (4, 277) and the number of participles (6, 662), not taking into account the total number of verses in the NT (about 7,900), which would yield a ratio closer to .6 participles per verse (p. 387). He states that 1 Thess 5:17 is the shortest verse in Greek (2 words and 14 characters), but actually Luke 20:30 is shorter (3 words but only 12 characters). These errors do not detract from the overall value of the work. Decker has contributed a text- book which is clear, thorough, and helpful for multiple learning environments. Allyson R. Presswood Nance New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, New Orleans, LA, USA Ruth: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, by Jeremy Schipper. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. xi + 221 pp. $75.00. ISBN 978-0-3001-9215-5. Jeremy Schipper provides a careful and nuanced take on the book of Ruth with his recent commen- tary in the Anchor Bible series. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book, and it really