In the NIV, Revelation 3:20 (an excerpt from that verse, that is) says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door..."
Have you ever wondered about the relationship between knocking and hearing someone's voice? It doesn't say, "I stand at the door and call out," and it doesn't say, "If anyone hears me knock." Something seems to be off in this verse, because last time I checked, one shouldn't hear voices (in one's head or otherwise) when somebody knocks on a door.
When working on this verse with the Ikizu translators, I was prepared to discuss the above issue with them to try to come up with a solution that was both accurate to the original and yet made sense. The first time I saw their draft, though, I couldn't help but smile. I had been so caught up with the issues this verse creates in English that I had forgotten that Ikizu people don't normally knock on doors. In Ikizu, the verse says, "I stand at the door and call..."
If you go to an Ikizu village and want to enter someone's house, you call out to them that you are there. It's nice, because not only do you know somebody is at your door, but you also generally know who it is (if you recognize their voice, that is). Indeed, I think that is the meaning Jesus has in this verse, that it's not just by chance that somebody opens the door when he knocks, but they know for whom they are opening the door.
I suppose it makes sense that sometimes translating a verse into Ikizu is much easier than translating it into English!
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