Bultmann famously argued that John denigrates seeing in favour of the “hearing/believing” that is achievable by believers in the era of Jesus’ tangible absence. However, in light of recent scholarship contending that God himself is visible in/as Jesus’ body (Irwin) and that the Gospel is particular attuned to the senses (Hangar), the absence of Jesus becomes an even more acute problem. This paper contends that the divine revelation in flesh is inextricably linked with the embodiment of readers/hearers of the Gospel. John’s symbols require embodiment to apprehend; and the voice of Jesus is extended in/as material text. Consequently, the tension between the presence and absence of Jesus is parallel, on the one hand, with the tension between seeing and the embodied simulation that occurs in reading, and on the other with the tension between oral and written media.