To quote the Edinburgh World Heritage website, “At the corner of the building, between the ground and first floors, is a figure of Moses kneeling on top of a sundial. On the image of the sun next to him are the Greek, Latin and English words for God. The figure used to have a miniature pulpit below him, so that he looked like John Knox preaching“.
This evening I consulted my copy of “How To Read a Church” by Richard Taylor, my first port of call when it comes to matters of religious symbolism in a Christian context, and it says, “Moses, with white hair and long beard, is usually shown carrying two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments“.
I wonder what happened to the second tablet in this case?
Perhaps he’s got a laptop?! 🙂 A lovely building, I photographed it myself only recently but missed the sundial.
Interestingly, I noticed the sundial, but completely missed the significance of the house, which I didn’t photograph. It was only when I was researching about Paisley Close that I realised John Knox House was next door! 🙂