1 Peter 1:9

The connexion with mention of persecution suggests that the writer is here thinking of the saying, in your patience ye shall win your souls and perhaps also of the contrast between the persecuton who has only power over the body. Whatever happen to the body the conclusion the consummation of their faith is assured them. κομιζόμενοι implies that already they are receiving what is due to them (cf. 1 Peter 5:4) and therefore they rejoice with Hannah in God the Saviour. In the Attic Orators who use a refined form of colloquial Greek the verb is common in the sense of recovering debts, as in Matthew 25:27, ἐκομισάμην ἂν τὸ ἐμόν. St. Paul applies it to future recompense (2 Corinthians 5:10, ἵνα κομίσηται ἕκαστος τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:25; cf. 2Ma 8:33, τὸν ἄξιον τῆς δυσσεβείας ἐκομίσατο μισθόν); in Hebrews 3:4, it is used of receiving promises. τὸ τέλος. The common meaning fulfilment or consummation gives a fair sense but the connection with κομιζόμενοι is thus somewhat strange. The parallel of 1 Peter 1:4, taken with Pindar, Ol. x(xi.) 81, Δόρυκλος δʼ ἔφερε πυγμᾶς τέλος, suggests as a possible rendering because ye receive the reward. The Septuagint, again (Numbers 31:28, etc.), uses τ. to translate מבס = proportion to be paid, tax. And this use is well established in Greek literature for τὰ τέλη, cf. λυσιτελεῖν, etc. Accordingly Suidas defines τέλος as τὸ διδόμενον τοῖς βασιλεῦσι. The particular connotations can hardly be pressed here but these uses give some colour of support to the Syriac rendering recompense and the mercedem of Augustine; cf. Romans 6:22. σωτηρίαν ψυχῶν ͂ = σωτηρίαν above. ψυχῶν is added to console the readers for their sufferings in accordance with Mark 8:35, ὃς δʼ ἂν ἀπολέσει τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου σώσει αὐτήν = John 12:25; cf. Luke 21:19; James 1:21. The soul for St. Peter is the self or personality as for Jesus Himself.