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1Pe_1:9. κομιζόμενοι τὸ τέλος κ . τ . λ .] gives the reason of that joy; the participle links itself simply on to ἀγαλλιᾶσθε , “inasmuch as ye obtain,” etc., and supplies confirmation that what is here spoken of is not present, but future joy. It is arbitrary to interpret, with de Wette and Brückner: “inasmuch as ye are destined to obtain;” or with Steiger: “inasmuch as even now in foretaste ye obtain.” Joined with the future present ἀγαλλιᾶσθε , the participle must also be in the present.[67] Cf. with this passage, more especially chap. 1Pe_5:4.
ΚΟΜΊΖΕΙΝ : “obtain” (cf. chap. 1Pe_5:4), is in the N. T. frequently used of the obtaining of what will be assigned to man at the last judgment; 2Pe_2:13; 2Co_5:10; Eph_6:8; Col_3:25. Steinmeyer incorrectly explains the word: secum portare.
τὸ τέλος , not “the reward” = ΜΙΣΘΌς (Beza, Vorstius, etc.), neither is it “the reward of victory” (Hofmann);[68] but it is the end of faith, that to which it is directed; see Cremer, s.v.
τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν ] refers back to πιστεύοντες , 1Pe_1:8.
σωτηρίαν ψυχῶν ] The salvation is indeed one already present; but here is meant the Christians’ completed salvation, of which they shall be partakers, ἐν καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ (1Pe_1:5).
On ψυχῶν , Bengel remarks: anima praecipue salvatur: corpus in resurrectione participat; cf. Jam_1:21; Joh_12:25; Luk_21:19.
[67] Winer, in the 5th ed. (p. 403), gives the same interpretation as de Wette; in the 6th (p. 306 [E. T. 429]) and the 7th (p. 330), on the other hand: “as receiving (they are that already in the assurance of faith).” Schott: “since ye are about to, or on the way to, gather in(!) like a harvest the end of your faith.” Schott is clearly wrong when he asserts that if the apostle had had the future joy in his mind, he must have written κομισάμενοι on account of the δεδοξασμένῃ , “because the attaining of the end of salvation, which is still in the act of being accomplished, could not be placed parallel with the final glorification which has already taken place,” since there is nothing unreasonable in the idea that the joy of the Christians is glorified when they receive the end of their salvation.
[68] The expression κομίζειν indeed shows that Peter pictured to himself the τέλος of faith as a trophy, but not that τέλος literally means: “trophy.”