The nimbed and bearded Baptist faces frontally and holds the Lamb of God across his chest with his draped left hand, and points to it with
his right. His feet rest on two globes. The outermost legs of the Lamb have been broken away, but originally stood free of the cross. The
dimensions of the panel are problematic. The figure of John looks squat and the lines of the drapery and the panel’s borders don’t quite
line up. Only fragments of the Latin inscription survive. In the lower section of the left border are the words ‘[…] [A]DORAMVS (we adore),
and across the lower border ‘VT NON CVM […]’ (so that not with). Its source remains unknown, but the third person plural voice has led to
the suggestion that the source text may have been part of liturgical practices at Ruthwell.
Christ over the beasts: The figure of Christ faces frontally. He holds a scroll (or mappa) in his left hand and his right hand is raised
in blessing, echoing his pose in the Magdalene at the feet of Christ panel on the opposite side of the cross. Christ rests his feet on
the snouts of two beasts, which cross their paws in recognition of his divinity. Their crossed paws form an X, or chi, the first letter
of his name.
The Latin inscription surrounding the panel reads: + IhS XPS IVDEX (across the top) ⋅ AEQVITATIS ⋅ (down the right side); BESTIAE ⋅ ET ⋅
DRACON[ES] ⋅ COGNOVERVNT ⋅ IN DE ⋅ SERTO ⋅ SALVA[TO]REM ⋅ MVNDI ⋅ (down the left side). Translation: ‘+ Jesus Christ, judge of equity.
Beasts and dragons recognised in the desert the saviour of the world’. There is no one source for this metrical sententia, but it recalls
both Psalm 90/91:13 (Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon), and
Habbakuk 3:2 (Between two living things you will become known).
