Seeing the Word is an interesting attempt to refocus New Testament study (hence the subtitle). He reviews recent scholarship which favored an attempt to be “objective.” This necessarily excludes faith commitments. As a result, Biblical Studies moved away from the Church and towards the university, away from theological interpretation and towards a historical-critical interpretation. Even believers had to “suspend” their faith in order to fit the “objective” criteria of academia. Bockmuehl attempts to show why this is insufficient. Every communicator considers his audience and speaks in appropriate language. There is always an implied and ideal hearer/reader. If someone outside of that group seeks to understand the message the particular language will not be best suited to his understanding. Bockmuehl makes the case that the “implied reader” of the New Testament are those who are “converted, or converting” (232). In other words, the writers *assume* faith instead of excluding it. Our author does not want to forfeit historical studies all together. In fact he shows appreciation for their work in recapturing the Jewishness of Jesus. He believes the implied readers are those who see the Word taking on specifically Jewish flesh. In nuce, he contends that while exegesis ought to be ecclesiastically located it also must reckon with Jesus’ historical particularity as a Jewish man in the first century. This is the assumption of the Bible writers and therefore describes the ideal/implied reader. This book was helpful in some areas but not a show stopper. The best work, I think, was in chapter two when he discusses the idea of the implied reader/exegete.