Revelation 17:11 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Beast that ... is not - his beastly character being kept down by outward Christianization of the state until he starts to life again as "the eighth" king, his 'wound being healed' (Revelation 13:3), Antichrist manifested in fullest opposition to God. HE х autos (G846)] is emphatic. He, pre-eminently: to whom the ten kings or kingdoms "give their power and strength" (Revelation 17:12-13; Revelation 17:17). That a personal Antichrist will head the anti-Christian kingdom, is likely, from the analogy of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Old Testament Antichrist, "the little horn" (Daniel 8:9-12); "the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8), answers to 'goeth into perdition,' and is applied to an individual, Judas, in the only other passage where it occurs (John 17:12). He is a child of destruction, and has but a little time ascended out of the bottomless pit, when he 'goes into perdition' (Revelation 17:8; Revelation 17:11). 'While the Church passes through death of the flesh to glory of the Spirit, the beast passes through glory of the flesh to death' (Auberlen).

Is of the seven - `springs out of the seven.' The eighth is not merely one of the seven restored, but a new power proceeding out of the seven. At the same time, there are not eight, but only seven heads, for the eighth is the embodiment of all the God-opposed features of the seven. In the birth-pangs which prepare the 'regeneration,' there are wars, earthquakes, and disturbances (Auberlen), wherein Antichrist takes his rise ("sea," Revelation 13:1; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:9-11; Luke 21:25-26). He does not fall like the other seven (Revelation 17:10), but is destroyed, going to his own perdition, by the Lord in person.

Revelation 17:11

11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.