Revelation 17:11 Commentary and Bible Study

‘The beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition.’ The eight is numbered with reference to the five that are fallen, the one that is, and the one that is not yet come of verse 10. This verse is extremely intriguing. What is this beast? Is it after all an individual? We have concluded that the beast represents this world’s government in the hand of the ungodly but particularly as it is manifest in the great totalitarian empires of history. But now the beast almost comes alive before us. It is individual human beings that go to perdition. The extended personification presents us with an actual person that comes into individual existence eventually. He is the antichrist himself, for those kingdoms were nothing less than Satan’s earlier failed attempts to set up his kingdom on earth with his king, the antichrist, in place, the incarnation of himself. Finally, ‘the man of sin [will be] revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).He is called the eighth and yet John has told us that there are only seven heads. How then can he be the eighth? Because he coincides with the seventh, but he becomes so prominent and so significant that this final world empire becomes his world empire. It is during this last totalitarian regime that the antichrist will finally be personally revealed. Then the kingdoms of this world will have accomplished what they were made to accomplish. Then all things will be subservient to the antichrist. He is one of the seven because the seven heads were all leading up to the time when he would appear. He is an eighth because he is separate from the seven heads, for in him, for the first time, the beast is personified.