Revelation 17:11

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 [ autos (G846)] is emphatic. He, pre-eminently: to whom the ten kings or kingdoms "give their power and strength" (Revelation 17:12; 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); "the son of perdition" (2 Thessalonians 2:3), 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; Luke 21:25). He does not fall like the other seven (Revelation 17:10), but is destroyed, going to his own perdition, by the Lord in person.