The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Beast ... was, and, is not - (cf. Revelation 17:11.) The time when the beast "is not" is during 'the deadly wound' (Revelation 13:1-18): the time of the seventh head's Christianity, when its beastlike character was suspended temporarily. The healing of its wound answers to its ascending out of the bottomless pit. The anti-Christian world-power returns worse than ever, with Satanic powers from hell (Revelation 11:7), not merely from the sea of convulsed nations (Revelation 13:1). Christian civilization smites the beast but for a time: the deadly wound is always connected with its being healed up, the nonexistence of the beast with its reappearance. Daniel does not even notice any change in the world-power effected by Christianity. We are endangered on one side by the harlot's spurious Christianity, on the other by the beast's open antiChristianity: the third class is Christ's 'little flock.'
Go. So 'Aleph (') B, Vulgate, Andreas, read future; but A, Irenaeus, 'goeth.'
Into perdition. The continuance of this revived seventh (i:e., the eighth) head is short: it is therefore called 'the son of perdition,' essentially doomed to it immediately after his appearance.
Names were. So 'Aleph ('), Vulgate, Andreas; but A B, Syriac, Coptic, singular, 'name is.'
Written in - `upon.'
Which - rather, 'when they behold the beast that it was,' etc. So Vulgate.
Was, and is not, and yet is. A B, Andreas, read, ' ... and shall come' (literally, 'be present' х parestai (G3918)]). The tetragrammaton, or sacred four letters (Y-H-W-H) in Yahweh (H3068), 'who is, was, and is to come,' the believer's worship, has its counterpart in the beast 'who was, and is not, and shall be present,' the object of the earth's worship (Bengel). They exult with wonder that the beast, which seemed to have received its death-blow from Christianity, is on the eve of reviving with greater power than ever on the ruins of that religion which tormented them (Revelation 11:10).