John the Evangelist with his symbol: The Evangelist and his symbol, the eagle, face each other. Their
pose, as well as the large size of the eagle in comparison to the evangelist, is intended to convey
the divine inspiration passed to the human evangelist through his symbol. John appears to be seated.
He reaches out towards his symbol with his left hand, which possibly supports a scroll or book. Traces
of an inscription survive. The letters INP run upwards within the left border of the panel, while the
letters BVM run downwards in the lower corner of the right border. They can most likely be reconstructed
as the beginning and end of the Latin phrase ‘In principio erat verbum’ (In the beginning was the word),
the opening line of John’s gospel.
This panel originally faced the other way, capping the west face of the Cross. It was placed back
to front when the cross was reconstructed by the Rev Henry Duncan in 1823.
