8. beast … was, and is not—(Compare Rev 17:11). The time when the beast “is not” is the time during which it has “the deadly wound”; the time of the seventh head becoming Christian externally, when its beast-like character was put into suspension temporarily. The healing of its wound answers to its ascending out of the bottomless pit. The beast, or Antichristian world power, returns worse than ever, with satanic powers from hell (Rev 11:7), not merely from the sea of convulsed nations (Rev 13:1). Christian civilization gives the beast only a temporary wound, whence the deadly wound is always mentioned in connection with its being healed up the non-existence of the beast in connection with its reappearance; and Daniel does not even notice any change in the world power effected by Christianity. We are endangered on one side by the spurious Christianity of the harlot, on the other by the open Antichristianity of the beast; the third class is Christ’s little flock.”

go—So B, Vulgate, and Andreas read the future tense. But A and Irenaeus, “goeth.”

into perdition—The continuance of this revived seventh (that is, the eighth) head is short: it is therefore called “the son of perdition,” who is essentially doomed to it almost immediately after his appearance.

names were—so Vulgate and Andreas. But A, B, Syriac, and Coptic read the singular, “name is.”

written in—Greek, “upon.”

which—rather, “when they behold the beast that it was,” &c. So Vulgate.

was, and is not, and yet is—A, B, and Andreas read, “and shall come” (literally, “be present,” namely, again: Greek, “kai parestai”). The Hebrew, “tetragrammaton,” or sacred four letters in Jehovah, “who is, who was, and who is to come,” the believer’s object of worship, has its contrasted 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 in seeing that the beast which had 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 (Rev 11:10).

9. Compare Rev 13:18; Da 12:10, where similarly spiritual discernment is put forward as needed in order to understand the symbolical prophecy.

seven heads and seven mountains—The connection between mountains and kings must be deeper than the mere outward fact to which incidental allusion is made, that Rome (the then world city) is on seven hills (whence heathen Rome had a national festival called Septimontium, the feast of the seven-hilled city [Plutarch]; and on the imperial coins, just as here, she is represented as a woman seated on seven hills. Coin of Vespasian, described by Captain Smyth [Roman Coins, p. 310; Ackerman, 1, p. 87]). The seven heads can hardly be at once seven kings or kingdoms (Rev 17:10), and seven geographical mountains. The true connection is, as the head is the prominent part of the body, so the mountain is prominent in the land. Like “sea” and “earth” and “waters … peoples” (Rev 17:15), so “mountains” have a symbolical meaning, namely, prominent seats of power. Especially such as are prominent hindrances to the cause of God (Ps 68:16, 17; Is 40:4; 41:15; 49:11; Ez 35:2); especially Babylon (which geographically was in a plain, but spiritually is called a destroying mountain, Je 51:25), in majestic contrast to which stands Mount Zion, “the mountain of the Lord’s house” (Is 2:2), and the heavenly mount; Rev 21:10, “a great and high mountain … and that great city, the holy Jerusalem.” So in Da 2:35, the stone becomes a mountain—Messiah’s universal kingdom supplanting the previous world kingdoms. As nature shadows forth the great realities of the spiritual world, so seven-hilled Rome is a representative of the seven-headed world power of which the dragon has been, and is the prince. The “seven kings” are hereby distinguished from the “ten kings” (Rev 17:12):the former are what the latter are not, “mountains,” great seats of the world power. The seven universal God-opposed monarchies are Egypt (the first world power which came into collision with God’s people,) Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Medo-Persia, Rome, the Germanic-Slavonic empire (the clay of the fourth kingdom mixed with its iron in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, a fifth material, Da 2:33, 34, 42, 43, symbolizing this last head). These seven might seem not to accord with the seven heads in Da 7:4–7, one head on the first beast (Babylon), one on the second (Medo-Persia), four on the third (Greece; namely, Egypt, Syria, Thrace with Bithynia, and Greece with Macedon): but Egypt and Greece are in both lists. Syria answers to Assyria (from which the name Syria is abbreviated), and Thrace with Bithynia answers to the Gothic-Germanic-Slavonic hordes which, pouring down on Rome from the North, founded the Germanic-Slavonic empire. The woman sitting on the seven hills implies the Old and New Testament Church conforming to, and resting on, the world power, that is, on all the seven world kingdoms. Abraham and Isaac dissembling as to their wives through fear of the kings of Egypt foreshadowed this. Compare Ez 16:1–63; 23:1–49, on Israel’s whoredoms with Egypt, Assyria, Babylon; and Mt 7:24, on the characteristics of the New Testament Church’s harlotry, namely, distrust, suspicion, hatred, treachery, divisions into parties, false doctrine.

10. there are—Translate, “they (the seven heads) are seven kings.”

five … one—Greek, “the five … the one”; the first five of the seven are fallen (a word applicable not to forms of government passing away, but to the fall of once powerful empires: Egypt, Ez 29:1–30:26; Assyria and Nineveh, Na 3:1–19; Babylon, Rev 18:2; Je 50:1–51:64; Medo-Persia, Da 8:3–7, 20–22; 10:13; 11:2; Greece, Da 11:4). Rome was “the one” existing in John’s days. “Kings” is the Scripture phrase for kingdoms, because these kingdoms are generally represented in character by some one prominent head, as Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Medo-Persia by Cyrus, Greece by Alexander, &c.

the other is not yet come—not as Alford, inaccurately representing Auberlen, the Christian empire beginning with Constantine; but, the Germanic-Slavonic empire beginning and continuing in its beast-like, that is, heathen Antichristian character for only “a short space.” The time when it is said of it, “it is not” (Rev 17:11), is the time during which it is “wounded to death,” and has the “deadly wound” (Rev 13:3). The external Christianization of the migrating hordes from the North which descended on Rome, is the wound to the beast answering to the earth swallowing up the flood (heathen tribes) sent by the dragon, Satan, to drown the woman, the Church. The emphasis palpably is on “a short space,” which therefore comes first in the Greek, not on “he must continue,” as if his continuance for some [considerable] time were implied, as Alford wrongly thinks. The time of external Christianization (while the beast’s wound continues) has lasted for centuries, ever since Constantine. Rome and the Greek Church have partially healed the wound by image worship.

11. beast that … is not—his beastly character being kept down by outward Christianization of the state until he starts up to life again as “the eighth” king, his “wound being healed” (Rev 13:3), Antichrist manifested in fullest and most intense opposition to God. The “he” is emphatic in the Greek. He, peculiarly and pre-eminently: answering to “the little horn” with eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, before whom three of the ten horns were plucked up by the roots, and to whom the whole ten “give their power and strength” (Rev 17:12, 13, 17). That a personal Antichrist will stand at the head of the Antichristian kingdom, is likely from the analogy of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Old Testament Antichrist, “the little horn” in Da 8:9–12; also, “the man of sin, son of perdition” (2 Th 2:3–8), answers here to “goeth into perdition,” and is applied to an individual, namely, Judas, in the only other passage where the phrase occurs (Jn 17:12). He is essentially a child of destruction, and hence he has but a little time ascended out of the bottomless pit, when he “goes into perdition” (Rev 17:8, 11). “While the Church passes through death of the flesh to glory of the Spirit, the beast passes through the glory of the flesh to death” [Auberlen].

is of the seven—rather “springs out of the seven.” The eighth is not merely one of the seven restored, but a new power or person proceeding out of the seven, and at the same time embodying all the God-opposed features of the previous seven concentrated and consummated; for which reason there are said to be not eight, but only seven heads, for the eighth is the embodiment of all the seven. In the birth-pangs which prepare the “regeneration” there are wars, earthquakes, and disturbances [Auberlen], wherein Antichrist takes his rise (“sea,” Rev 13:1; Mk 13:8; Lu 21:9–11). He does not fall like the other seven (Rev 17:10), but is destroyed, going to his own perdition, by the Lord in person.

12. ten kings … received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings … with the beast—Hence and from Rev 17:14, 16, it seems that these ten kings or kingdoms, are to be contemporaries with the beast in its last or eighth form, namely, Antichrist. Compare Da 2:34, 44, “the stone smote the image upon his feet,” that is, upon the ten toes, which are, in Da 2:41–44, interpreted to be “kings.” The ten kingdoms are not, therefore, ten which arose in the overthrow of Rome (heathen), but are to rise out of the last state of the fourth kingdom under the eighth head. I agree with Alford that the phrase “as kings,” implies that they reserve their kingly rights in their alliance with the beast, wherein “they give their power and strength unto” him (Rev 17:13). They have the name of kings, but not with undivided kingly power [Wordsworth]. See Auberlen’s not so probable view, see on Rev 17:3.

one hour—a definite time of short duration, during which “the devil is come down to the inhabitant of the earth and of the sea, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Probably the three and a half years (Rev 11:2, 3; 13:5). Antichrist is in existence long before the fall of Babylon; but it is only at its fail he obtains the vassalage of the ten kings. He in the first instance imposes on the Jews as the Messiah, coming in his own name; then persecutes those of them who refuse his blasphemous pretensions. Not until the sixth vial, in the latter part of his reign, does he associate the ten kings with him in war with the Lamb, having gained them over by the aid of the spirits of devils working miracles. His connection with Israel appears from his sitting “in the temple of God” (2 Th 2:4), and as the antitypical “abomination of desolation standing in the Holy place” (Da 9:27; 12:11; Mt 24:15), and “in the city where our Lord was crucified” (Rev 11:8). It is remarkable that Irenaeus [Against Heresies, 5:25] and Cyril of Jerusalem [Rufinus, Historia Monachorum, 10.37] prophesied that Antichrist would have his seat at Jerusalem and would restore the kingdom of the Jews. Julian the apostate, long after, took part with the Jews, and aided in building their temple, herein being Antichrist’s forerunner.

13. one mind—one sentiment.

shall give—So Coptic. But A, B, and Syriac, “give.”

strength—Greek, “authority.” They become his dependent allies (Rev 17:14). Thus Antichrist sets up to be King of kings, but scarcely has he put forth his claim when the true King of kings appears and dashes him down in a moment to destruction.

14. These shall … war with the Lamb—in league with the beast. This is a summary anticipation of Rev 19:19. This shall not be till after they have first executed judgment on the harlot (Rev 17:15, 16).

Lord of lords, &c.—anticipating Rev 19:16.

are—not in the Greek. Therefore translate, “And they that are with Him, called chosen, and faithful (shall overcome them, namely, the beast and his allied kings).” These have been with Christ in heaven unseen, but now appear with Him.

15. (Rev 17:1; Is 8:7.) An impious parody of Jehovah who “sitteth upon the flood” [Alford]. Also, contrast the “many waters” Rev 19:6, “Alleluia.”

peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues—The “peoples,” &c. here mark the universality of the spiritual fornication of the Church. The “tongues” remind us of the original Babel, the confusion of tongues, the beginning of Babylon, and the first commencement of idolatrous apostasy after the flood, as the tower was doubtless dedicated to the deified heavens. Thus, Babylon is the appropriate name of the harlot. The Pope, as the chief representative of the harlot, claims a double supremacy over all peoples, typified by the “two swords” according to the interpretation of Boniface VIII in the Bull, “Unam Sanctam,” and represented by the two keys: spiritual as the universal bishop, whence he is crowned with the miter; and temporal, whence he is also crowned with the tiara in token of his imperial supremacy. Contrast with the Pope’s diadems the “many diadems” of Him who alone has claim to, and shall exercise when He shall come, the twofold dominion (Rev 19:12).

16. upon the beast—But A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac read, “and the beast.”

shall make her desolate—having first dismounted her from her seat on the beast (Rev 17:3).

naked—stripped of all her gaud (Rev 17:4). As Jerusalem used the world power to crucify her Saviour, and then was destroyed by that very power, Rome; so the Church, having apostatized to the world, shall have judgment executed on her first by the world power, the beast and his allies; and these afterwards shall have judgment executed on them by Christ Himself in person. So Israel leaning on Egypt, a broken reed, is pierced by it; and then Egypt itself is punished. So Israel’s whoredom with Assyria and Babylon was punished by the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. So the Church when it goes a-whoring after the word as if it were the reality, instead of witnessing against its apostasy from God, is false to its profession. Being no longer a reality itself, but a sham, the Church is rightly judged by that world which for a time had used the Church to further its own ends, while all the while “hating” Christ’s unworldly religion, but which now no longer wants the Church’s aid.

eat her flesh—Greek plural, “masses of flesh,” that is, “carnal possessions”; implying the fulness of carnality into which the Church is sunk. The judgment on the harlot is again and again described (Rev 18:1; 19:5); first by an “angel having great power” (Rev 18:1), then by “another voice from heaven” (Rev 18:4–20), then by “a mighty angel” (Rev 18:21–24). Compare Ez 16:37–44, originally said of Israel, but further applicable to the New Testament Church when fallen into spiritual fornication. On the phrase, “eat … flesh” for prey upon one’s property, and injure the character and person, compare Ps 14:4; 27:2; Je 10:25; Mic 3:3. The First Napoleon’s Edict published at Rome in 1809, confiscating the papal dominions and joining them to France, and later the severance of large portions of the Pope’s territory from his sway and the union of them to the dominions of the king of Italy, virtually through Louis Napoleon, are a first instalment of the full realization of this prophecy of the whore’s destruction. “Her flesh” seems to point to her temporal dignities and resources, as distinguished from “herself” (Greek). How striking a retribution, that having obtained her first temporal dominions, the exarchate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, and the state of Rome, by recognizing the usurper Pepin as lawful king of France, she should be stripped of her dominions by another usurper of France, the Napoleonic dynasty!

burn … with fire—the legal punishment of an abominable fornication.

17. hath put—the prophetical past tense for the future.

fulfil—Greek, “do,” or “accomplish.” The Greek, “poiesai,” is distinct from that which is translated, “fulfilled,” Greek, “telesthesontai,” below.

his will—Greek, “his mind,” or purpose; while they think only of doing their own purpose.

to agree—literally, “to do” (or accomplish) one mind” or “purpose.” A and Vulgate omit this clause, but B supports it.

the words of God—foretelling the rise and downfall of the beast; Greek, “hoi logoi,” in A, B, and Andreas. English Version reading is Greek, “ta rhemata,” which is not well supported. No mere articulate utterances, but the efficient words of Him who is the Word: Greek, “logos.”

fulfilled—(Rev 10:7).

18. reigneth—literally, “hath kingship over the kings.” The harlot cannot be a mere city literally, but is called so in a spiritual sense (Rev 11:8). Also the beast cannot represent a spiritual power, but a world power. In this verse the harlot is presented before us ripe for judgment. The eighteenth chapter details that judgment.